It's the same in many fields of endeavour

The problem on the wards is the same in many fields of endeavour.¹ As a dentist with over 40 years at the ‘‘toothface'' I know that most of us do not spend enough time personally helping patients to keep themselves healthy—showing them how to clean their teeth and how to eat sensibly. We would much rather be doing the “advanced treatment”—fixing the teeth that should have been kept healthy in the first place and making them more beautiful. The simple things we delegate to others.

This is all very well—it takes less time to train a hygienist than a dentist—but because it costs less to see a hygienist than to have a tooth fixed by a dentist both patient and dentist come to believe that the simple care (the “crap job”) is less important than the complex.

Good leaders in all fields know that you have to make your presence obvious regularly and from time to time get in there and do the simple jobs yourself.