Michael welcomes Naphtali Bryant, managing principal consultant at RAC Leadership and former US Marine and chief people officer, to discuss the “curse of competence” and how leaders become bottlenecks by continuing to solve, edit, and rescue instead of building team capability. Naphtali explains that promotions often reward past competence, but leadership requires shifting from having answers to developing others, using the question “Whose growth does this moment belong to?” They cover how dependence shrinks ownership and initiative, why “my team needs to step up” can mean the leader must step back, and practical tactics like restraint, better questions, and telling hard truths. They also discuss culture, leadership inflection points, AI’s impact on leadership value, and when staying an individual contributor may be the best path.

Timestamps:
00:24 Welcome
01:10 Meet Naphtali Bryant
02:39 Marine Corps to Tech Journey
05:38 Defining the Curse
08:45 Whose Growth Is It
11:05 Ego and Restraint
13:10 Inflection Points Mirror
16:03 How Leaders Get Stuck
19:22 Culture and Echo
23:32 Top Down to AI Shift
25:54 AI Changes Leadership Value
28:15 IC vs Leader Path
31:06 Key Takeaways and Closing

Connect with Naphtali:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/naphtalibryant/
https://racleadership.com

Michael's National Workforce Study on Change Management: https://www.michaeljlopez.coach/research