From top performer to leader without becoming Gino La Trottola

You just got promoted to manager. 🎉 Congratulations! Now sit down, because there's something no one told you (or maybe you're trying to ignore): If you keep doing everything yourself, you're in trouble.

Until yesterday you were a phenomenon in your work: precise, fast, reliable. You have been rewarded for your results and now you have a team to lead. But there is a small problem: if you think your value is still tied to how much you personally produce, you're doing it all wrong.

🔄 Change of mindset: from doing to making do

Going from a top performer to a leader is like stopping being a race car driver and becoming the boss of the entire team of mechanics and engineers. If you still want to be behind the wheel, who's going to take care of the rest? 🏎️

Yet, many new managers fall into this trap:

• ✅ “If I do it, I’ll do it first.”
• ✅ “If I delegate, I risk it not being done well.”
• ✅ “If I let go of control, I will lose value.”

❌ Wrong. Your worth is now measured differently: you're a good manager if you grow your team, not if you still do everything by yourself.

😰 The risk of being a “Gino La Trottola” (i.e.: not ending up like the crazy hamster)

Let's name those who fall into this trap: Gino The Spinning Top. 🤦‍♂️

Gino was the best in his role. Then he got promoted and decided it was better do not delegate. He continued to personally take care of a thousand details, to double-check every work of the team, to be “CC-ed” on every email. The result?

• ❌ Overload. Too much work, too many meetings, too much under control.
• ❌ Micromanagement. No one on the team took initiative because Gino corrected everything.
• ❌ Unmotivated team. If you don't leave room for others, why should they engage?

🎭 Moral: Gino was increasingly stressed, the team less and less autonomous and finally… boom, burnout. 💥

🔑 The key to breaking the loop: Delegate and empower

1️⃣ Understand that delegating is not losing control, it's increasing it

The more autonomous your employees are, the more time you have to focus on the important things. If you still have to manage every operational detail, it means you are slowing everything down. Your job now is to make the team function without you. ⏳

👉 Key question: If I disappeared for a week tomorrow, what would stop me? If the answer is “everything,” there’s a problem.

2️⃣ Don't just delegate tasks, but also responsibilities

Delegating is not just about saying “do this,” but also about giving people space to make decisions. Want a team that grows? Give them control over something tangible. 📈

💡 Example: instead of saying “Make this presentation and send it to me for review”, try with “Can you handle this presentation and present it directly in the meeting?”

🔹 Effect: your collaborator feels valued and you free yourself of a task. Win-win. ✌️

3️⃣ Change your success metric

🔴 BEFORE: “I have completed X task successfully.”
🟢 NOW: “My team achieved X result thanks to my support.”

Your impact is no longer measured by how much you get done, but by how effective your team becomes. If everyone depends on you for everything, you're not doing a good job. 🎯

💡 Conclusion: the manager who does everything is a manager who fails

• 🔹 If you really want to grow as a leader, let go of the need for control.
• 🔹 Your job is no longer to do everything yourself, but to create a system that works without your constant intervention.
• 🔹 Delegating doesn’t mean losing power, it means multiplying it.

🤔 And now, final question: are you still convinced that doing everything yourself is a good idea? 😏

For further information see 🔖