Recently, I had the opportunity to work with leaders who supervise teams engaged in critical, life-or-death work. Our conversation centered around the complexities of leading through resistance—a challenge all leaders face.
As we neared the end of the session, I asked participants to share key takeaways. One leader offered a powerful insight: “We’ve got to slow down to go fast.”
This reminded me of one of the core lessons from senior leaders in our Evolve Your Leadership Voice program—The Leadership Superpower of Slowing Down.
Her comment reminded me that slowing down doesn’t mean:
❌ Getting stuck in endless deliberation
❌ Avoiding tough decisions
❌ Postponing action out of fear
❌ Taking more time just for the sake of it
Instead, slowing down helps us move faster in the long run—by making better decisions, leading with greater clarity, and executing with thoughtfulness.
Why Leaders Need to Slow Down
Slowing down allows us to:
✅ Connect with ourselves and build self-awareness
✅ Manage emotions and responses more effectively
✅ Reflect, process, and think more clearly
✅ Strengthen relationships and trust
✅ Gain clarity on challenges, resistance, and solutions
✅ Time spent being proactive, saves time having to be reactive
What Slowing Down Looks Like in Practice
It can be as simple as:
- Taking a deep breath before responding
- Scheduling another time to revisit a conversation
- Waiting until tomorrow to send that email
- Giving yourself time to reflect before reacting
- Sleeping on a decision before moving forward
Slowing down isn’t a luxury—it’s a leadership superpower. We recently hosted an Evolve webinar. If you are interested in the recording, just let me know. We’d be happy to share.
We have another free Evolve webinar on Tuesday, April 29, at 2 p.m. ET, focused on Leading with Cultural Intelligence (CQ) with guest Dr. Rahn Franklin, a fellow at the Cultural Intelligence Center. We’re adding a CQ 360 to Evolve. If you would like to join us or get the recording, you can register here.
