It’s a responsibility to do more — of what actually matters.
In this bold and perspective-shifting episode of The Legacy Lounge, Brin’na Rollins-Williams challenges a narrative that many leaders quietly believe: that rising in leadership means delegating more and disappearing into strategy.
But what if doing less is actually what’s creating more chaos?
Drawing from her Fortune 30 executive experience and real-world coaching stories, Brin’na unpacks why leaders who emotionally disengage create burnout, turnover, and confusion — and how the most magnetic leaders embrace “more” in ways that strengthen culture, accountability, and team performance.
This isn’t about 80-hour workweeks.
It’s about more ownership.
More emotional availability.
More vulnerability.
More investment in people.
If you’re a leader who feels the weight of responsibility — this episode will show you how to carry it differently.
What “Doing More” Actually Means
Brin’na breaks down the four leadership shifts that create impact without increasing workload:
More Emotional Availability
Sitting with your team in the mess instead of telling them to “figure it out.”
More Ownership
Taking accountability when things go sideways — and modeling growth.
More Vulnerability
Admitting when you don’t know. Sharing when you’re under pressure. Building psychological safety.
More Investment in Others
Having the hard conversations that grow people — instead of avoiding them.
When leaders do more of what matters, they create magnetic teams who want to carry the weight alongside them.
Your Leadership Challenge This Week
Pick one area where you can do more — not more busy work, more leading.
More strategic thinking time.
More recognition.
More transparency.
More one-on-ones.
Because your leadership legacy isn’t measured by what you accomplished.
It’s measured by what you empowered others to accomplish.
What story is your team telling about you at the dinner table tonight?
The weight of more. Why great leaders embrace greater responsibility.
Leadership isn't about doing less. It's about doing more of what actually matters. And this episode breaks down why leaders who do less actually create more chaos for everyone and how actually doing more, what it can look like when you do it right.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Legacy Lounge. I'm your host, Brin'na Rollins Williams. And today we are talking about something that might make some of you squirm a little bit, but stay with me because this insight is gold. So I posted something this week that really got a lot of people talking. And I said that leadership isn't a license to do less, it's a responsibility to do more. I have heard this.
over and over throughout my career. And honestly, the responses were kind of interesting on the engagement side of feedback to me saying this. Some people loved it, but I could pretty much feel others thinking, great, Brin'na, more pressure. But here's the thing about it. This is where my Fortune 30 background meets my entrepreneurial heart. And...
The leaders who try to do less are the ones that are creating more chaos that burns everybody out.
So I wanna tell you a story. So back when I was in my senior director role with Target, I had a peer outside of my group. We were colleagues and just as an observant leader, I saw through his own actions how much he was delegating pretty much everything.
and would disappear into meetings all day long.
the stores throughout his market were a complete disaster, which I have no room to talk because when I got here, that's what I was brought in to fix myself as well. But I mean, they were atrocious. His turnover was through the roof. The teams fell abandoned. And there was a leader for story's sake, we're going to make up her name and call her Maria. But Maria understood what I meant when I said more.
She did more listening, more showing up when things got really tough or when they were really ugly, more taking of accountability when things went sideways. And her teams, they would follow her anywhere. I mean, to the end of the earth. So what does doing more actually look like? Because I'm not talking about working more.
80-hour work weeks and micromanaging everything is not leadership. That's just control. The more that I'm talking about is more emotional availability. When your teams are struggling, you don't just say, okay, go figure it out. You sit with them in the mess and you help them navigate through it. You identify the roadblocks that might be blind spots and help drive the conversation to how we move through it together.
More ownership. When something goes wrong, magnetic leaders don't just point fingers. They ask, could I have done differently to prevent this? Or what will I do next time that I can learn from? More vulnerability. This one is huge. Admitting when you don't know something and sharing when you're feeling pressure too, that's not weakness. That is an open invitation to being a human and being a magnetic leader.
that drives team camaraderie, more investment in others. This means having the hard conversations that truly help people grow, not avoiding them because they're super uncomfortable to have in the first place. And here's what I learned during my own battles in the rock bottom dark times, know, the panic attacks on the sidewalk type of stuff. I've shared this
before, but sometimes the weight of leadership feels crushing because we think that we have to carry it alone. But the plot twist is when you embrace doing more in the right ways, it actually becomes way easier because you're building magnetic teams that want to carry the weight with you alongside you. And I remember this conversation with a client that really brought this story back up to the surface. We can call her Sarah.
She was exhausted. She was running herself ragged, trying to be everywhere for everyone all the time. And I asked her, what if instead of doing more tasks, you did more leading? And I can tell it was an uncomfortable question, but the light bulb was beautiful in the way that it hit and it landed. She started doing more time with her own calendar to protect strategic thinking.
She did more team development conversations. She did more culture pulsing when she was around her team. Less scrambling, less firefighting, less reactive chaos, and way more fun. And her team transformed within that month. Why? Because she was finally doing more that actually mattered. So think about it this way. When you do more,
of the right things, you create the capacity for everyone else to do the same. When you do more of the wrong things, you create dependency and you create burnout and you foster it. More emotional availability creates teams that do feel supported versus abandoned. And more ownership actually creates cultures where people take responsibility instead of just pointing fingers and fighting back.
More vulnerability creates psychological safety where innovation is safe to happen. And it's amazing when it does. More investment in others creates capabilities that multiply your impact. So your challenge for this week is to maybe pick one area that you can do more differently as a leader. Not more busy work, more leading, more leadership.
Maybe it's more one-on-ones with your team. Maybe it's more transparency about a company direction. Maybe it's more recognition of just acknowledgement of good work. Whatever it is, remember this, the weight of your leadership isn't meant to crush you. It is meant to strengthen you and everyone around you. Because at the end of the day, your leadership legacy isn't about
how much you accomplish, but it's about how much you empowered others to accomplish themselves. That's the dinner table test, right? That's when the team goes home and they start telling a story about what it's like to work with you. What type of story are they gonna tell tonight?
Remember, you've got this. I'm right here beside you, hopefully offering insights and tactics that make you think as a leader, because doing more doesn't have to require more workload. It actually just gives more impact. If this episode lands with you, hit reply, leave me a comment, follow along, but do more of what actually matters in your leadership. This is Brin'na, and I'll catch you on the next episode of the Legacy Lounge.
