Why Your Next Big Growth Phase Depends on Slowing Down
“If you do not schedule your slow, your body and your business will eventually schedule it for you, usually at the worst possible time.”
We are heading into that time of year when the sun stays up longer, and the pace of the world usually shifts. For many high achievers, the instinct is to fight that shift. We think that if we take our foot off the gas for even a second, we will lose our momentum. We stay on the hamster wheel because, frankly, action feels good. We convince ourselves that more speed equals more progress.
But after years of running businesses and coaching leaders, I have found the opposite to be true. Strategic deceleration is actually the only way to sustain high-velocity growth.
When you are sprinting at a breakneck pace, your view is limited to the next six inches in front of your face. You are reacting. You are putting out fires. But worse than that, you start overstepping. In the spirit of “action and service,” you lean over and decide to help where you are not needed. You start doing other people’s jobs and confusing that frantic activity with success.
Nothing will make your A-players run away faster than an accidental leader who can’t stay out of their accountabilities. When you choose to slow down, you move from the wheel to the 30,000-foot view. From that height, you can finally see if you are running in the right direction, and you can finally give your team the space to do what you hired them to do.
I call this the Summer Pivot. As the season changes, it is the perfect time to audit your life and your organization. What is actually working? What is just noise? We often carry around “legacy” tasks and habits that served us three years ago but are now just dead weight. You cannot see that weight when you are sprinting. You only notice it when you slow down enough to feel the strain.
Even the most relentless optimization experts are realizing this. Tim Ferriss recently shared that a major health scare forced him to completely change the way he operates. He realized that running himself into the ground wasn’t sustainable. Now, his schedule bends to protect his well-being: if he is out late, he cancels his morning meeting to get sleep. If he has a jam-packed day, he cancels dinner plans. If someone who literally wrote the book on hyper-efficiency has to force a pause to survive, what makes us think we can outrun reality?
There is a strange paradox in leadership: slowing down can actually shorten your sales cycle and stabilize your growth. When you are rushed, you make sloppy decisions. You miss the nuances in a conversation with a prospect. You hire the wrong person because you just need a body in a seat. By slowing down, you improve your decision-making. You become more intentional. You trade frantic activity for focused impact.
This summer, I want to challenge you to be the leader who has the courage to pause. Take the vacation. Walk the dogs without your phone. Spend four hours just thinking about your big goals instead of answering emails.
The most powerful engines need time to cool down so they can go the distance. Your leadership is no different.
Are you brave enough to go slow so you can eventually go faster?
Until next time, friends,
Chris
If you enjoyed this article, I recommend reading these past Outside Insights posts:
The Five Whys: Drilling Down to What Really Matters
The Boring Secret to Great Leadership: The Daily Plan
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