The leadership tax of being the “safe pair of hands”
“You’re such a safe pair of hands”
There’s a particular label that follows high performing leaders throughout their careers. It sounds like praise, it feels like trust, and it’s often said with genuine appreciation: “you’re such a safe pair of hands”
Early in your career, this label is gold. It means you deliver. It means you’re reliable. It means people can count on you when things get messy. It means you’re the person leaders turn to when the stakes are high and the margin for error is low
But at senior levels, this label starts to carry a hidden tax. One that quietly shapes your workload, your visibility, your opportunities, and even your leadership identity
Being the “safe pair of hands” doesn’t just describe how you work. It starts to define what work you get. And that’s where the cost begins
The hidden tax: you get the work that must succeed, not the work that moves your forward
When you’re known as the safe pair of hands, you become the default choice for:
High risk initiatives
Messy turnarounds
Cross functional firefighting
Politically sensitive projects
Work that requires emotional labour
Work that others have failed to deliver
Work that is too important to give to someone untested
This is not a coincidence. It’s pattern recognition. Leaders give you the work that must not fail
But here’s the catch. The work that must not fail is rarely the work that accelerates your career. It’s stabilising work. It’s reputation protecting work. It’s organisational maintenance work
It’s important but it’s not always strategic. And whilst you’re busy delivering flawlessly, others are being given:
Innovation portfolios
Growth bets
High visibility opportunities
Executive sponsored initiatives
Work that shapes the future, not just protects the present
This is the leadership tax of being the safe pair of hands. You get trusted, but you don’t always get stretched
Why product and transformation leaders feel this tax more than most
Product and transformation leaders don’t operate in clean, well defined lanes. You operate in the fault lines of the organisation. The places where strategy, delivery, technology, operations, and politics collide
Your day to day reality is shaped by:
Priorities that shift faster than the planning cycles
Teams running at different levels of maturity
Leaders who want progress but avoid trade offs
Systems that weren’t designed to work together
Decisions made with partial context
A level of scrutiny that intensifies the closer you get to the work
Because you sit in these fault lines, you’ve developed capabilities most leaders never have to build. You’re the one who can:
Make sense of messy, contradictory inputs
Translate across functions that don’t speak the same language
Spot risks before they become political problems
Hold the emotional temperature of the room
See the downstream impact of decisions other treat as isolated
Keep momentum when everything around you is wobbling
So when something is unravelling, you’re the one they call. When a project becomes politically delicate, you’re the one they trust. When an initiative is failing but “must be saved,” you’re the one they parachute in
This isn’t because others can’t help. It’s because you’ve proven you can handle what the organisation finds hardest. This is competence. This is capability. This is leadership. But it’s also how the trap forms
The more you demonstrate you can stabilise the work no one else wants, the more that work finds its way to you instead of the opportunities that would stretch your range, expand your influence, or elevate your role
You become the person who rescues the present, not the person who shapes the future
The emotional cost: you become the organisational shock absorber
Being the safe pair of hands comes with emotional labour that no one names:
You absorb pressure so others don’t have to
You carry the consequences of decisions you didn’t make
You stabilise teams who are burnt out or misaligned
You mediate between leaders who aren’t speaking
You hold the anxiety of executives who want certainty
You protect your team from organisational noise
This labour is invisible. It’s unmeasured. It’s unacknowledged. But it’s heavy. And over time, it creates a quiet resentment. Not because you don’t want to help, but because you can feel the gap between the work you’re doing and the work you’re capable of
The identity cost: when your reputation shrinks your leadership
There’s a point in every senior leader’s career where the way people talk about you stops feeling like recognition and starts feeling like a box. You hear things like:
“They’re the one we trust when things get messy”
“If it absolutely has to land, give it to them”
“They’re unshakeable, nothing rattles them”
“They’re the stabiliser”
All of these are meant as praise. And they are praise. But they’re also a signal. When the organisation describes you in this way, they’re not talking about your range. They’re talking about your reliability. And reliability, whilst essential, is not what gets leaders promoted at senior levels. Senior roles are shaped by:
Setting direction, not just delivering it
Influencing across power structures
Shaping narratives that move executives
Operating at enterprise altitude
Creating momentum, not just maintaining it
Being known for judgment, not just steadiness
Reliability is assumed. It’s the entry ticket. But when it becomes the headline of your leadership brand, something subtle happens. People stop seeing the full breadth of what you can do
You become the person who can be trusted to fix things, which is valuable, but you’re no longer the person people instinctively turn to when they want to shape things
That’s the trust identity cost. Your competence becomes so visible that your potential becomes invisible
The opportunity cost: you get pulled into the present instead of the future
The “safe pair of hands” leaders often find themselves:
Running stabilisation programs instead of growth initiatives
Fixing broken teams instead of building new ones
Delivering legacy commitments instead of shaping new bets
Managing risk instead of driving innovation
Being the glue instead of the architect
This is not a reflection of your potential. It’s a reflection of the organisation’s dependency on your competence. But dependency is not the same as opportunity
How high impact leaders break the “safe pair of hands” pattern
They stop saying yes automatically
Your instinct is to help, to deliver, and the stabilise. But high impact leaders pause and ask:
“Is this mine to own?”
“Is this aligned with my next step?”
“Is this work or is this a pattern?”
“What am I being chosen for - competence or potential?”
This pause is where the shift begins
They negotiate the scope, not just the task
Instead of accepting the whole problem, they say:
“I’ll take this on, but only if we clarify X”
“I can lead this, but I won’t carry Y”
“I’ll stabilise this, but someone else needs to own the long term”
This signals leadership, not compliance
They make their strategic ambition visible
Not through self promotion but through clarity. They say:
“Here’s the kind of work I want to lead next”
“Here’s where I can create the most value”
“Here’s the portfolio I want to shape”
Executives can’t sponsor what they can’t see
They build range, not just reliability
They intentionally develop:
Narrative skills
Enterprise thinking
Influence across power structures
Strategic framing
Decision orchestration
Vision setting
Range is what moves you from safe to senior
They let others carry the weight
This is the hardest part. You have to let:
Teams struggle
Peers step up
Leaders feel the consequences of their choices
The system experience its own friction
Not because you don’t care, but because you’re no longer the shock absorber
If you’re feeling the tax, you’re not alone
Every high performing leader reaches this point. It’s not a sign you’re failing. It’s a sign you’ve outgrown the version of leadership the organisation still expects from you
You’re ready for work that stretches you, not just work that needs you. You’re ready for work that shapes the future, not just stabilises the present. You’re ready to be valued for your range, not just your reliability. And that shift is entirely within reach
If you want to move from being a “safe pair of hands” to being an enterprise level leader, let’s work on this together. Here are three ways:
Interim Executive Leadership/Consulting - when the transformation needs someone inside the system stabilising, steering, and delivering,
Capability Building - when leaders and teams need the capability everyone expects but no one teaches: how to navigate the people, politics, and performance expectations that come with their jobs, and
Executive Coaching - when senior leaders need a confidential, strategic partner to think clearly, make decisions, and lead through complexity.