When you lead 200 people and still ask: "Am I even making an impact?"
You’d think that once you’re leading hundreds of people, you’d feel powerful. Influential. Seen.
But here’s the twist: The higher up you go, the less feedback you get. The more people you oversee, the harder it is to trace your actual impact.
One senior leader I coached recently said something that gave me pause:
“Some weeks, I sit there and wonder… am I having any influence at all?”
Not because they weren’t leading. Not because they weren’t trusted. But because, at a certain level, the scoreboard disappears.
Leadership used to be about doing. Now it’s about shaping. And shaping doesn’t come with a dashboard.
No one’s clapping for you anymore. You don’t get a gold star for that one conversation you handled just right. And when the system runs smoothly, no one even notices you were the one who made it so.
So how do you reconnect with your impact?
You pause. You reflect. You ask better questions... not about what you accomplished, but about what you shifted.
Here are 3 that help:
What changes when I walk into the room / enter Zoom?
Where are my teams thriving… quietly… because of the tone I’ve set?
What values am I modeling, even when I’m not trying?
If you’ve ever felt invisible in your own leadership, it's not a signal to start doing more. It’s about finally recognizing what’s already working because of you.
Try this: Every end of week, ask yourself, “What quietly went right this week… because I showed up as me?”
🚫 And by the way, “dUH, JuSt bE MORE cOnFiDent” is trash advice.🚫
If you’ve ever been told that all you need is confidence, let me offer a bolder truth:
It’s not a confidence gap. It’s a self-trust gap.
One of my clients leads the largest region in their company. Brilliant, visible, responsible. And yet?
“I still feel like they’re going to figure out I’m not supposed to be here.”
That’s not about skills. That’s not about imposter syndrome. That’s about self-trust.
Confidence is what you project. Self-trust is how you anchor.
It’s how you speak to yourself in the silence. It’s the belief you hold even when no one’s validating you.
And here’s where it gets real: The more senior your role, the more exposed you feel. Especially when you didn’t “grow up” in the same lane as everyone else.
But leadership isn’t about being the deepest expert in the room. It’s about being the connector, the culture-carrier, the person who keeps the business human.
That role doesn’t require perfection.
It requires presence.
It requires you to show up.
My best, always,
Shar
P.S. You don’t need another productivity hack. You need space to think, recalibrate, and lead with power - not pressure. That’s what this coaching work is for. If you’re in a season of growth or reinvention, let’s talk. Book a 1:1 call with me here.
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