Becoming a Director: Letting Go, Coaching, and Redefining Success

After talking about what it’s like becoming a manager — the chaos, the survival mode, the constant feeling of keeping everything upright with sheer willpower — stepping up to director sounds like it should be even harder. Bigger responsibilities. Bigger expectations. Bigger everything.

But here’s the surprising part: Taking the step to director can actually make life easier.

Not because the work gets lighter or the pressure disappears, but because the role forces you to lead in a completely different way.

The Shift You Don’t See Coming

• When I became a director, I thought it would be “manager but more.”
• More meetings.
• More decisions.
• More responsibility.

In reality, the biggest change wasn’t the workload — it was the mindset.

As a manager, you’re still in the weeds. You’re close enough to feel every bump in the road. You solve problems. You jump in. You fix things. You’re the safety net, the shield, and sometimes the plumber when something metaphorically springs a leak.

But when you step up to director, all of that has to change.

• You can’t be the fixer anymore.
• You can’t jump in before anyone else sees the issue.
• And you absolutely can’t rob your managers of the chance to grow.

That last one took me a while to learn.

Trusting Your Team — Even When It’s Uncomfortable

If you’ve done the job well as a manager, then stepping up usually means your team is ready to step up too. Not perfectly. Not without mistakes.But ready.

You suddenly have a group of trusted team members stepping into their own leadership roles — and you have to let them learn. And learning often comes wrapped in bumps, missteps, and a few “well… that didn’t go as planned” moments.

In my first year as a director, I still tried to:

• fix problems myself
• answer questions before they were asked
• jump into issues before my managers even realised something was wrong

It came from a good place — I wanted to help, support, protect, keep everything smooth. But what I was actually doing was taking learning experiences away from them.

The intention was right. The impact wasn’t.

Support, Defend, Educate

A director’s job isn’t to micromanage from above or swoop in like a firefighter. It’s to build leaders.

That starts with three things:

1. Support

Be there when they need you — truly need you. Not every minute. Not at every sign of smoke. Just when the fire is bigger than they can handle.

2. Defend

Your team should always know you’ve got their back. In tough meetings. In executive rooms. When mistakes happen. When things don’t go to plan.

Leadership is easier when people know they’re safe to try.

3. Educate

When things go wrong — and they will — the goal isn’t to assign blame. It’s to ask:

What happened?

What did we learn?

What will we change next time?

Accountability isn’t punishment. It’s growth.

You’re Not a Director — You’re a Coach

One of the best lines I’ve ever been given is this:

“You’re not a director now — you’re a coach. Your playing days are mostly over.”

And it’s true.

• Directors don’t win games.
• They don’t score the goals.
• They don’t make the match-saving plays.

Their job is to:

• develop the players
• build the strategy
• set the tone
• raise the standard
• create the environment where others can shine

Your MVPs are your managers. Your role is to help them become MVPs.

It’s Not About Individual Wins Anymore

This is the real heart of becoming a director: Success stops being about what you deliver.

You win when your team wins. You succeed when they succeed. Your impact becomes measured in the growth, confidence, and capability of the people you lead.

You’re not judged on how well you do the job you used to do. You’re judged on how well others can now do it — because of you.

And honestly? That shift is incredibly freeing.

Becoming a Director Is About Letting Go, Not Taking On More

The step from manager to director is one of the most defining transitions in any career. It’s not a promotion — it’s a perspective shift.

You let go of control.

You let go of the instinct to fix.

You let go of the idea that you must carry everything.

And instead, you build people.

You build trust.

You build leaders.

You build a team that wins together.

That’s the real job. And it’s the part that makes being a director truly rewarding.