How to Create Change #10: What are You Leaving on the Table?
Author: Don Scott December 09, 2025
In Newsletter #9, I suggested that most people…
Spend too much of their time and energy managing and doing. Meaning they’re short-changing their own leadership.
Have a hard time slowing down and getting truly accurate with themselves.
Are incurring a substantial opportunity cost, if nothing else.
I worked for a few years with a great CEO client who experienced the shift in a big way. It happened month-by-month. About 10 months in he shared the following, which I’ve shortened to these powerful points.
Do you see the tie in between what we’ve been talking about, slowing down, and leadership? What a perfect example of slowing down to create more.
Too busy ➜ Slowing down ➜ Greater leadership ➜ Greater leverage ➜ Business has exploded
Revenues are up something like 50% since then. He did that. And his experience of his role in his company and his life barely resemble what they were before.
Do this: A little Soul searching. If you could step back out of yourself and just observe. Seriously, try that. Relax. Relax every muscle in your body. Relax your mind. Look at yourself without judgement, or attachment. Forget everything you think you know – knowing is the enemy of learning.
What can you see?
What is the opportunity?
If you had nothing to do aside from being an excellent leader of others. If you focused not only on leading but on learning and getting better at leading. At cleaning up some bad habits, thoughts, attitudes that keep you from being excellent. The things that make it all so much harder.
If you spent more time leading and less doing and managing, what would that feel like? What would your life be like? What outcomes would you expect for your growth, company, team, and otherwise?
Now you’re seeing the opportunity cost of being only a “pretty good” leader.
