The Stage Manager of Your Own Career

You’ve built your systems around staying safe.

You don’t like speaking up in meetings, so you write detailed emails instead.

You’d rather not lead the discussion, so you send flawless checklists.

You hate presenting to SLT, so you delegate it – for their development.

And it all looks so professional. Smooth. Reliable.

The team runs like clockwork, and you’re the calm centre of it all.

Except you know what’s really happening.

Every process, every protocol, every pre-emptive update – they’re not just good systems.

They’re safety mechanisms.

When Efficiency Becomes a Hiding Place

You call it efficiency.

Your nervous system calls it protection.

Because the ones who speak up in meetings

– the ones who run the presentations you quietly pass on

–the ones who take the visibility you’ve carefully engineered yourself out of

–they become known. Recognised. Promotable.

Most people can name the band’s lead singer. A few remember the bassist.

Virtually no one can name the stage manager.

You’ve become the stage manager of your own career – invisible, essential, unseen.

And you tell yourself it’s what you wanted.

That you’re not interested in the spotlight.

That you’d rather do meaningful work than play politics.

That leadership isn’t really your thing anyway.

But be honest. Is that truth – or is it safety in a very convincing disguise?

The Story That Keeps You Small

What started as a strategy has become a story.

A story that keeps you content enough not to question it.

A story that sounds like wisdom when it’s actually fear with fifteen years of tenure.

“I’m better behind the scenes.”

“I prefer the operational side.”

“Someone else is more suited to that kind of role.”

And the cost of that story?

It’s compounding quietly.

It’s not just visibility you’re losing. It’s opportunity. Trajectory. Money.

Rooms where decisions are made and your name never comes up – not because you weren’t qualified, but because you’ve spent your entire career perfecting the art of not being seen.

The research is brutal: 45% of people have turned down a promotion or not applied for a job because of their fear of public speaking.

Almost half the workforce quietly negotiating against their own potential.

You might not be missing the next role yet.

But you’re building a career where saying no to visibility isn’t a choice any more – it’s the only option that feels safe.

Safety Has a Ceiling

Here’s what nobody tells you about staying safe -

It works.... until it doesn’t.

Safety keeps you comfortable.

It keeps you from fumbling in front of SLT.

It keeps you from the stomach-drop of standing at the front of the room with everyone watching.

But safety has a ceiling.

And you’ve been living under it so long, you’ve started calling it the sky.

The truth is: you’re not protecting yourself from failure.

You’re protecting yourself from being remembered.

From taking up space.

From the terrifying possibility that if people really saw you, they might expect something you’re not sure you can deliver.

So you stay essential but invisible.

Competent but quiet.

Reliable but replaceable.

The Question Worth Asking

Next time you feel the impulse to delegate instead of speak,to prepare instead of present,to write instead of say – pause.

Notice what you’re protecting.

Because the longer you design your work around fear,

the harder it becomes to tell where she ends and you begin.

Your systems aren’t just running your team. They’re running you.

And the career you’re building around safety?

It’s costing you the one you actually want.

Ready to rewrite the rules?

It’s time to stop managing the stage and step into the spotlight of your own career.

Let’s talk about what it looks like when you become the lead singer – not the crew.

Book a free call