Every leader has the power to either accelerate progress or silently stall it. You’ve seen it before: Decisions stuck in limbo. Approvals waiting on someone’s desk. Priorities changing too often. Teams unclear on what’s next.

What’s the root cause? Bottlenecks.

And often, they trace directly back to leadership. But here’s the paradox, while leaders are tasked with removing roadblocks, they can also become them.

So how do high-performance leaders make sure they’re clearing the path, not creating new congestion?
Let’s break it down.

In simple terms, a bottleneck is anything that slows down or stalls progress.

That could be a delayed decision, unclear priorities, or too many tasks funnelling through one person (often the leader).

In a growing business, bottlenecks are natural. But if left unchecked, they start to cost you, slower delivery, burned-out teams, and lost opportunities.

The real danger? Most bottlenecks don’t look like bottlenecks until it’s too late.

Many leaders unknowingly become the very blockage they’re trying to eliminate. Here’s what that looks like:

• You’re the only one making final decisions
• Your calendar is a traffic jam of approvals and check-ins
• Teams wait on you to move forward
• You’re across every project, but none are moving fast
• People are unclear on priorities because they keep shifting

When leaders get too involved in the weeds, they create a single point of failure. And that’s where progress dies.

1. Decision Bottlenecks
   When too many decisions flow up instead of across the team, leaders become overwhelmed, and the business stalls.
   ✅ Solution: Push decision-making down. Empower leaders at every level to act within clear guardrails.
2. Communication Bottlenecks
   When leaders are the sole bridge between teams or departments, silos form fast.
   ✅ Solution: Build cross-functional systems. Encourage lateral collaboration so information doesn’t always flow through you.
3. Capacity Bottlenecks
   When everything must pass your desk, your availability becomes the bottleneck.
   ✅ Solution: Delegate authority, not just tasks. Build trusted systems that don’t need your signature to operate.

1. Diagnose the Delay
   Start by mapping your team’s workflows. Where does progress slow down? What keeps landing on your desk? Look at approvals, project handovers, and decision loops.
2. Define “Fast Enough” Decision-Making
   Speed isn’t always about rushing, it’s about clarity. Define how quickly decisions need to be made in each area of the business and who owns them.
3. Build Redundant Capability
   If you’re the only one who can do something, that task is at risk. Identify single points of failure and upskill or empower others to share the load.
4. Set the Guardrails, Then Get Out the Way
   People perform best with clarity and autonomy. Set non-negotiables and success metrics, then give your team space to execute.
5. Upgrade Communication Channels
   If your team only gets answers through you, you’re a human Slack thread. Encourage team-to-team comms, shared dashboards, and documented updates.
6. Audit Your Leadership Habits
   Be honest. Are you slowing things down by being too involved? Are your meetings productive or performative? Small adjustments here have massive ripple effects.

A Harvard Business Review study found that the average CEO spends 72% of their time in meetings, but only 1% of time on organisational design. Yet org design is the top driver of bottlenecks. If you’re always “on,” you’re not zooming out enough to see where the real problems are.

If you’re not careful, the same behaviours that built early success will strangle your next stage of growth. Leadership that worked when you were 10 people will not work when you’re 100. The friction compounds.

That’s why great leaders don’t just remove bottlenecks, they build systems that prevent them. You need to think beyond heroic effort. It’s about strategic effort.

Leadership isn’t about knowing every answer. It’s about making sure the right people have the clarity, trust, and systems to keep momentum alive.

You don’t need to hold everything. You need to unlock everything.

So ask yourself:
What are you holding on to that your team could run with tomorrow?
And what’s it costing your business if you don’t let go?

Ready to identify and eliminate the hidden friction in your team?
Take the West Peak Leadership Capability Scorecard to uncover where your leadership systems are driving or draining performance.