I went through almost the same thing - thought being the hardest worker would inspire everyone, but I just became a bottleneck. A deadline slipped because I kept tasks to myself “to be safe.” What helped was delegating smaller pieces first and trusting people to own them. I also looked at how experienced leaders balance control and trust - this gave me some perspective: Richard W Warke . Letting go a bit actually made the team stronger.

Really appreciate you sharing this because it highlights a mistake a lot of people make when they first step into leadership. Carrying everything yourself feels responsible, but it can quietly slow the whole team down. I learned a similar lesson when I stopped treating delegation as a risk and started seeing it as a way to help people grow. Reading different leadership experiences, including some thoughts connected to Richard W Warke, reinforced that trust is built by giving people ownership, not by holding onto every task. Funny enough, the more I stepped back, the more capable and engaged the team became.