How do I deal with missing hands-on work after moving into leadership?

You rose by being good at the craft, and now you own the whole result and sit far from the work you loved. That distance can feel like a quiet loss, even in success. You are haunted by it because the craft was not just your job. It was where you felt most yourself. That feeling deserves respect, not dismissal. Here is the shift worth making. Your job is no longer to do the craft. It is to make great craft possible for others and to steer the whole toward what matters. When you clear the path for your team, teach what you know, and choose the right direction, your skill lives on through many hands instead of just your own. That is not a step down. It is a wider way to matter. If you still ache for the work itself, keep a small piece of it. Take on one project, sit in on the real building now and then, stay close enough to remember the feel of it. You do not have to fully leave the craft to lead. But lead you must, and there is real pride in growing others into what you once were.