There was a stretch where my phone was the bottleneck of an entire department. Nothing shipped until I had looked at it. No decision moved until it had crossed my desk. People waited on me, and I will tell you the truth: it felt wonderful.
Being the person everything waits on feels exactly like being important. The two are easy to confuse because they wear the same clothes. Your calendar is full. Your name is on every thread. You are, demonstrably, needed.
It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice that a person everything waits on is also a person everything is stuck behind. I had hired capable adults and handed all of them a single shared dependency. Me. I called it leadership. It was a traffic jam with my face on it.
The goal was never to become indispensable. The goal is to become unnecessary to the ordinary, so you are free for the extraordinary that actually needs you.
Try the smallest version this week. When someone brings you a decision that is theirs to make, do not make it. Ask, what would you do? Then, unless it is a fire, let them. You will feel useless for about a week. That feeling is the lease ending.
How deep is your bench, really? The Absence Audit scores whether anyone can hold the wheel when you step away.