I have been terrified that people would find out the truth for years, but then I found out that Laissez-Faire leadership.

Apparently, I’ve been doing it for years.

Have you

In fact, this style of leadership has worked really well for me. 

But I’ll be honest: I’ve always felt a little embarrassed admitting it out loud. Especially when I’m surrounded by peers who are constantly talking about KPIs, OKRs, and meticulously structured leadership frameworks.

You know the type. Every week is a new dashboard. Every conversation includes words like “alignment,” “bandwidth,” and “synergies.” I respect it. But I’ve always led a little differently.

Then I read how Richard Branson builds companies.

He gets clear on the vision, makes sure his team has the resources, then trusts them to execute. No micromanaging. No obsessive control. Just high trust, high support, and high expectations.

And that’s when I realized. This is what I do.

When people ask about my leadership style, I usually say, “My goal is to make myself useless.”

It gets a laugh. But I mean it.

Making myself useless doesn’t mean being absent. It means doing the real work up front: hiring right, training right, and giving people the tools to thrive. Once that’s done, I don’t need to hover. I don’t need to check in on every move. I can trust the team to make decisions, solve problems, and keep the momentum going.

It’s not passive. It’s deliberate. It’s earned trust.

Have I been burned? Of course. I’ve had people take advantage of that trust. I’ve had people lie, underperform, and play politics. That’s part of the game. But nine times out of ten, it works.

Nine times out of ten, people do better work because I believed in them.

And if you’re trying to build a Productized Education business, this lesson matters.

Because if you’re the only one delivering lessons, coaching students, solving support tickets, building tech, and rewriting the curriculum… Congratulations, you don’t have a business. You have a very demanding job.

To scale, you need to trust others. Teachers. Coaches. Admins. Support teams.

You need to build a structure that lets you step out so others can step in.

This is why I love Productized Education. It gives you the structure to make that possible.

The curriculum provides Clarity.

The team and the cohort model build Connection.

And systems of support reinforce Accountability.

When that engine is running, you don’t need to be everywhere. You don’t need to be the hero. You just need to be the architect.

I’ve learned that when you create the right conditions, people rise. When you trust them, they act with ownership. When you stop micromanaging, they start leading.

So I’ve stopped apologizing for my leadership style. It might not look flashy on a slide deck. It doesn’t come with spreadsheets and acronyms.

But it builds real businesses, powered by real people, doing great work because they were trusted to.

And at the end of the day, that’s what matters.

Not how much you control. But how much you’ve empowered.