Got someone questioning your leadership style? Asking for wild levels of access or decision-making power without the experience or context to back it up? Or maybe someone on your team is making you question your very existence as a leader?

When I see a pattern show up across multiple coaching conversations, I like to share it—and this one is worth talking about. Lately, I’ve seen a noticeable trend: people pushing against the internal hierarchy and asking for what often amounts to an inappropriate level of access, decision-making authority, compensation, or title.

My take? It’s a post-COVID side effect. Before COVID, employees often felt overworked and undervalued. During COVID, they were seen as essential and were treated accordingly. Now, that tension has landed in a weird place—where some team members are unintentionally (or intentionally) disrupting the system.

Leaders, trying to be kind and compassionate, may actually be reinforcing this behavior without realizing it. And just to be clear—this isn’t a generational issue. The pushback is coming from individual contributors across all age groups and experience levels. Want to know more? Check out this Coaching Minute video.