Most leaders think they know when to step in, but sometimes we step in because we still like doing the work.
A couple of years ago I inserted myself into a major Houston project. Nobody asked me to, but I had read the reports and heard enough concern from my account manager that I went to the site, walked the rigging plan myself, and changed the project schedule. For years I was a PM and I enjoy that work. I like working on project schedules, communicating to customers, and working hand in hand with the field crews to solve hard problems.
Changing the schedule is the part I would take back. The schedule belonged to the project manager. Rewriting it in front of the customer told everyone in the room where the real decisions got made, and it was not with the PM. So the next question from the customer came to me... and the one after that... and the one after that.... I had taught the customer to bypass the PM, which weakened their confidence in our project team and cost me a week I did not have. Two new account managers went uncoached. I missed meetings with key accounts, and proposals sat waiting on my review.
I also took something from my operations manager, who is good at his job. That project was a chance for him to coach a PM through a hard stretch, and I removed it by doing the work myself.
What I should have done was raise my concerns privately with the PM and my operations manager, then let the PM lead the schedule conversation.
There are times a leader has to step in. A team genuinely failing, a safety issue on site. Those are real. I reach for that justification too quickly, and on this project I was wrong.
The work you keep doing yourself is worth auditing. It is rarely the work that needed me.