In this episode, I sit down again with Laurie Baedke to tackle a topic that hits close to home for many leaders: control. We start with an honest admission: what makes us successful early in our careers often involves tight control, precision, and personal ownership. The problem is that those same habits quietly stop working as our roles expand.

Laurie walks through why high-achieving professionals, especially physicians and executives, struggle to let go. We talk about the psychology behind control, the discouragement that comes with needing new skills, and why leadership plateaus feel so tempting. She lays out a clear business case for releasing control, grounded in scalability, team engagement, burnout prevention, and succession planning.

We bring it to life with real examples from a fast-rising executive whose overwork masquerades as dedication, to a surgeon whose precision in the OR becomes a liability in leadership. We close by getting practical: replacing control with clarity, building trust through role definition, and shifting identity from being the hero who delivers outcomes to the leader who builds teams that can deliver without you.

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