When Competence Becomes the Heaviest Load: Christina’s Leadership Story

Christina’s leadership story reveals a hidden challenge facing many women in leadership: when competence becomes an invisible load. After purchasing a long-established New Zealand business during an economic downturn, Christina was forced to step into leadership through complexity, cultural reset, and rapid change. With executive coaching and a Freedom by Design approach, she redesigned leadership to be sustainable, shared, and values-led – a powerful example of women leading with clarity, structure, and resilience.

Women Who Lead by Design – Story 3
Christina | When Competence Becomes the Heaviest Load

Have you ever stepped into leadership not because you planned to, but because your competence quietly became essential to keeping everything afloat?

Women Who Lead by Design exists because too many women are leading brilliantly while carrying far more than anyone can see. This series isn’t about confidence clichés or picture-perfect leadership journeys — it’s about how leadership really forms, under pressure, responsibility, and constraint. Shelley found her voice after years of quiet capability. Deane used hers to lead with authority and heart at scale. Christina’s story reveals what happens when competence quietly turns into an invisible load — and why leadership must be redesigned to be sustainable. These are not case studies. They are women building businesses and lives that work, on their own terms.

Christina’s leadership story did not begin with a title or promotion. It started in July 2024, when she and her husband, Miles, purchased a long-established business in a small New Zealand community. The company had been operating for more than 60 years and carried deep local relationships, loyal customers, and ingrained ways of working.

They had not owned a business of this scale before. Systems were dated, change felt unsettling for many, and shortly after purchase the wider economic downturn added pressure to an already complex transition. Like many new owners, Christina and Miles quickly realised that business strategy, structure, and people leadership would determine whether the business could move forward sustainably.

“It was overwhelming more often than not,” Christina reflected. “We needed help to stay focused, to be accountable to the right things, and to keep believing we could get through a very heavy period.”

As the months unfolded, the business entered an intense phase of reset. Cultural alignment required attention, difficult decisions had to be made, and turnover created the need to rebuild capability and trust in a small labour market — all while keeping the business operating.

This is where the invisible load of competence quietly took hold.

Christina had always seen herself as the supporter rather than the leader.

“I believed my role was to help the leader succeed and shine,” she said. “I didn’t see myself as someone who led in my own right.”

Yet under pressure, her reliability, attention to detail, and ability to stabilise situations meant more responsibility flowed to her. Operational continuity, emerging systems, and emotional steadiness increasingly sat with Christina, even without a formal leadership title at first.

Research supports this pattern. Women often take on invisible work — mission-critical tasks that sustain organisations but rarely translate into recognition or advancement. Studies show women leaders disproportionately carry this unseen load without reward or acknowledgment (Harvard Business Review).

Additional research indicates that women in leadership roles report higher levels of burnout and lower levels of support than men, particularly during organisational change — the exact conditions Christina was navigating as a new business owner (McKinsey & Company).

“I didn’t think I was leading,” Christina shared. “I was just doing what needed to be done, but everything kept landing with me.”

This was the point where coaching shifted from being helpful to being essential. Rather than focusing on coping, the work centred on intentionally designing leadership. Leadership coaching provided structure when everything felt blurred, discipline when overwhelm threatened progress, and clear separation of roles and priorities when survival mode dominated decision-making.

As the business rebuilt, a different leadership shape emerged. Miles’ strengths sat in vision, business development, and the big picture. Christina’s strengths were in the ‘how’: systems, policies, standards, and operational clarity. What began as leadership by default became leadership by design.

“This is where it fitted,” Christina reflected. “I realised I did have a voice. I always had. I just hadn’t valued it.”

Through coaching, the focus moved to redistributing responsibility rather than absorbing it. Clear expectations were set, decision-making was shared, and systems were designed so leadership no longer depended on Christina carrying everything in her head. The team mantra became explicit: high-performing team players. Structure replaced assumption, and accountability became visible.

As the invisible load reduced, the business did not weaken. It stabilised. New team members stepped into responsibility, trust grew, and leadership capacity expanded beyond one person.

“I still care deeply,” she said. “But I’m no longer carrying everything on my own.”

Freedom by Design, for Christina today, is about sustainability rather than survival. After more than a year of relentless pressure, she now has the space to work on the business rather than constantly in it — assessing what is working, identifying what needs attention, and planning improvements with intention.

Personally, that freedom shows up simply.

“I’m exercising again,” she shared. “I’m learning to breathe.”

Her leadership learnings are hard-earned and clear: values must be lived, the right people matter, discipline really does bring freedom, and strong professional and personal support is non-negotiable. Most importantly, she has learned to trust herself as a leader.

Christina’s story matters because it reflects a reality many women recognise but rarely name. Competence can quietly become a burden when systems rely on it rather than support it. When that load is redesigned rather than rejected, leadership becomes both more powerful and more human.

If you recognise yourself here, this is your invitation to reflect. Are you being valued for your leadership, or relied on for your endurance?

Nothing needs to be broken to be redesigned. You can put the invisible load down and still lead with strength. That, too, is Freedom by Design.