Great Leadership Means Letting Go—With Confidence

I had a bit of traveling to do for work this past month, and it was one of those stretches where everything overlapped—airport delays, time zone confusion, bad Wi-Fi, and a to-do list that just kept growing.

I was behind on emails, slow to respond to messages, and acutely aware that I wasn’t “on top of things” the way I usually like to be. And I’ll be honest: it made me tense. I felt guilty. Anxious, even. I kept thinking I was letting things slip.

And that’s when I did something that didn’t come naturally to me: I let go. I decided to lean on my Managing Editor, Yasmine Nazmy, to keep the machine running at Inc. Arabia—and she handled it all with calm precision.

Things moved forward. The wheels kept turning. And so, once I got back into the flow of things at work, that’s when it hit me: the real issue I was facing wasn’t about productivity. It was about control. Or more specifically, my reluctance to let go of it.

As leaders (and especially those of us who’ve grown into our roles by doing everything ourselves), it’s easy to equate involvement with value. We tell ourselves we’re being responsible, or “hands-on,” when really, we’re just uncomfortable letting go—whether that means trusting others to carry the weight, or feeling guilty for asking them to. So, when we’re forced to step back, even briefly, it can feel wrong. Like we’re being careless. Or lazy. Or irrelevant.

But this experience that I‘ve had has got me to rethink what it means to be a leader. After all, delegation isn’t about offloading work. It’s about giving talented people the room to lead, contribute, and grow. If you’ve built the right team, things should move forward without you needing to hover over every detail. That’s not failure. That’s good leadership.

Of course, it’s not always easy. It takes time to build that kind of trust—and even more time to believe it’s okay to rely on it. But if we never let go, we’re not really leading. We’re just managing tightly.

So, here’s to the moments when we step back—and discover we’ve built something strong enough to stand on its own. That’s not a sign of absence. That’s a sign of maturity. And I’m grateful for the reminder.

This article first appeared in the April/May 2025 issue of Inc. Arabia magazine. To read the full issue online, click here.