Eight hours into a strategy session, the room was quiet.
Not confused. Not disengaged. Just quiet.
Whiteboards were covered with AI use cases, capability gaps, process redesigns, and uncomfortable business model conversations. These leaders were doing the right work — stepping out of their comfort zones and anticipating hard trends instead of reacting to them.
It was both exciting and exhausting to create clarity about the company’s future and the transformation needed to achieve their vision. They weren’t ignoring the elephant in the room; they were confronting it. But they realized the elephant was very real and very big. Change can feel overwhelming when it moves from incremental to exponential. Systems must evolve. Skills must be upgraded, and old legacy business models must be revamped. This puts additional pressure on talent recruitment, growth, and retention — which are already challenging.
The Leadership Trap
It’s so easy for leaders (especially me) to fall into the common trap of trying to swallow everything at once. Everything becomes urgent. Remember that when everything seems urgent, nothing really is.
I’ve learned in moments like this to pause and ask the team one simple question:
“Do we know more about what will make us successful tomorrow than we did this morning?”
Of course we do, so the answer is yes — that’s progress. It’s actually significant progress. Energy is restored when we reflect on this growth and celebrate it. We are no longer in a dark room. We have shed light on areas that need focus. Exponential change doesn’t require superhuman leaders, but it does require uncommon discipline and courage.
Eat the Elephant One Piece at a Time
Once you’ve confronted the elephant, break it into distinct pieces and prioritize the most important thing you can do in the next three months. Think about which parts rely on other parts. The key to more progress is realizing you can’t eat the elephant all at once. If the leg is the top priority, start eating the leg tomorrow. This will reduce anxiety, and it will prioritize focus and resources. This will also increase energy as people can see a way forward.
Who is responsible for cooking the leg? What is the timeline? How will we check in on progress? What tools do we need for collaboration? Building accountability into the plan ensures progress.
Never confuse high performance with being able to do everything. It always comes down to priorities and focus. Believe me, and I have tried several times, an elephant will bury you on the first step.
The Real Advantage
Anticipatory leaders don’t wait for disruption to hit. They anticipate, experiment, learn and adjust as eat one piece at a time. Ignoring the hard trends will only lead to irrelevance. In the words of my friend Daniel Burrus, “If it can be done, it will be done. If you don’t do it, someone else will.”
What does your elephant look like? Which piece needs to be prioritized? Remember, leadership that lasts is built on uncommon discipline. This means we make choices and then execute on them. It goes from making the right decision to making the decision right. It takes uncommon discipline to say NO. We can’t do everything at once, so prioritize and execute.
“If you were to anticipate how strong a company’s culture needs to be to transform and thrive in the future, Joey Havens paints a beautiful horizon in his book Leading with Significance.” Daniel Burrus
Grab your copy of Leading with Significance to find more magnetic insights to help you on your unique journey.
For more information on my presentations or to access my beBetter blog library go to joeyhavens.com.
