The Strategic Power of Slowing Down
Are you moving with pace or purpose?
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As the pace of change accelerates in our current world of constant disruption and complexity, leaders are under immense pressure to speed up, adapt, and keep up.
The relentless urgency to deliver results, meet targets, and stay ahead can feel inescapable. But counterintuitively, the most effective leaders are those who understand when to pause, reflect, and slow down to gain clarity and control.
There is enormous strategic value in deliberately stepping back. The concept of "go slow to go fast" isn’t a modern leadership trend - it’s an enduring principle rooted in history. Roman Emperors Titus and Augustus adopted the motto Festina Lente, meaning "make haste, slowly."
And this paradoxical wisdom emphasised the importance of deliberate, thoughtful action as the most effective path to sustainable progress.
Yet, in many organisations today, a “high action, go-go-go” approach is often mistaken for commercial savviness. A fast pace is equated with decisive leadership, while slowing down can be misinterpreted as indecision or inertia.
However, the reality often tells a different story. Teams and organisations that leap into action without first pausing to align on their strategy frequently find themselves dealing with inefficiencies, missteps, and wasted effort. Moving fast in the wrong direction is not progress; it’s risk.
For senior leaders, this presents a critical challenge: how do you ensure that you’re balancing speed with reflection in a way that keeps you focused, aligned, and strategic? How do you resist the temptation to act reactively when everything around you is demanding urgency?
This balance - knowing when to accelerate and when to pause - can be a defining factor in your success as a leader.
And while the world around you races forward, the ability to slow down and think clearly isn’t just a skill; it’s a strategic advantage.
You can find four tools to get you started, below.
Wise words: This quote by former President Lincoln is useful to reflect on in terms of how your natural approach impacts the way you lead, particularly during times of pressure and uncertainty.
What insight can you draw from it? (And if you had to chop down a tree would you get right in there and ‘go, go, go’ or would you be like Lincoln?)
Research: Published in the Harvard Business Review in partnership with the Economist Intelligence Unit, Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson show real evidence behind the value in organisations taking a beat. In studying 343 high performing businesses they found:
“The companies that embraced initiatives and chose to go, go, go to try to gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating profits than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track.
What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three-year period.”
Where does your leadership team naturally exist on the spectrum of pace?
Are there any assumptions that need to be re-examined?
What opportunities could reviewing the balance bring you?
Bullet time: If you find things are going too fast, step into the Matrix and hit the Bullet Time button. (Click the link in the image below for a Keanu Reeves demo, 40 seconds in)
In cinematography the ‘bullet time’ technique is used for the extreme transformation of time and perspective; allowing the audience to see events that would be imperceptible at high action speed and giving you the ability to move around the scene and experience it from different points of view.
When everything else is moving around you at high speed, what unique perspectives could taking a moment of bullet time thinking bring your leadership?
Speed up: If you’re in the need for speed, look to the OODA Loop to guide you in making fast and accurate decisions. It might just be the antidote to VUCA. Developed by military strategist and U.S. Air Force fighter pilot John Boyd, it is a model that can help guide rational thinking in high pressure, chaotic and complex situations.
What can you do to bring more OODA into your leadership, when you need it?
Read: Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman describes two systems of thinking; system one being fast and intuitive; and system two being slower and more deliberative - and how they impact on your decisions, choices and being. Alternatively you can watch: this Talk at Google by the Nobel Laureate himself.
Which thinking system do you use to guide your leadership decisions?
Is it where you always need it to be?
Where would adopting more of the opposite style serve you and your team even better?
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