Delegate or die: the self-employed trap. | Derek Sivers.

I think this article articulates a very important aspect of management. The leader’s job is not to be the bottleneck that everyone depends on for guidance. A leader’s job is to present a vision and philosophy and grow a self-sustaining embodiment of those ideals. This depends on communication and trust.

I’ve described my profession (Programmer/Software Dev) as having an ultimate goal of automating away our profession. We’re still a ways away, but the principle holds for any position where you aim to leverage resources to do more than you can on your own. Success is reaching a point where your resources (be it computers, people, robots, carrier pigeons) are maximally and sustainably utilized towards reaching a shared goal. How you achieve this depends on the situation, but the consistent thing is to remove yourself as the bottle neck.