The Counterintuitive Art of Slowing Your Roll

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• November 2, 2023

The Counterintuitive Art of Slowing Your Roll  

In our fast-paced, instant gratification society, it can be tempting as an entrepreneur or small business owner to want immediate results and non-stop growth. However, counterintuitively, sometimes the best way to achieve your goals faster is actually to slow down. By practicing mindfulness, patience, and purposeful restraint, you can set yourself up for greater long-term success. 

In my experience working with entrepreneurs and leadership teams in the services industry, I’ve seen time and again how slowing down strategically speeds results. When you take the time to carefully consider your actions, evaluate your processes, empathize with your team, and reflect on your purpose, you end up avoiding costly mistakes, frustrations, and burnout down the road.

Here are a few key ways that consciously slowing down can help entrepreneurs achieve their vision faster.

Mindful Decision Making

As a leader, you likely have a million ideas, requests, and decisions coming at you daily. It’s easy to get caught up in the frenzy of it all, giving each item that crosses your desk equal weight and urgency. However, not every idea or request requires your immediate attention and response. Being mindful, discerning, and strategic about what you focus on and commit to will ensure you’re spending time on the right priorities. 

For example, whenever you get a new request, stop and ask yourself if this aligns with your core business goals and strengths. Say no to distractions and time-wasters so you can dedicate your energy to meaningful projects. Approach major decisions with careful consideration, too —- vet each option, run tests, and get team input. Don’t just leap without looking. Slowing down decision-making avoids missteps.  

Reflective Business Planning 

Entrepreneurs are often go-getters who want to dive right into bringing their ideas to life quickly. However, taking time to intentionally reflect on your business plan can pay off exponentially. Slow down to examine whether your offering aligns with customer needs, your messaging resonates, and you have the right systems and team in place. Revisit your goals and progress quarterly or annually. Celebrate wins, learn from failures, and realign as needed. Planning with purposeful patience leads to course correcting and optimizing versus having to do abrupt about-faces down the road.

Empathetic Leadership

When driving hard for progress, it’s easy to focus exclusively on tasks, metrics, and outcomes. However, pause to consider the humans behind it all. Slow down to check in with how your team is coping with current workloads and priorities. Listen to their needs and suggestions. Lead with compassion, flexibility, and care—don’t just crack the whip. When people feel valued, they produce higher-quality work. Taking time to walk in your team’s shoes speeds up collaboration, engagement, and retention. 

Process Improvement

In your eagerness to grow your business, it’s natural to want to skip steps that feel tedious. However, resisting the urge to cut corners and instead slowing down to refine processes pays dividends. Analyze workflows and identify friction points. Review policies and modify outdated ones. Improve training and documentation and upgrade tools and templates. Smoothing out processes eliminates future headaches, mistakes, and inefficiencies. The time spent improving systems accelerates future progress.

Work-Life Balance

When passionately pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams, it’s easy to go full throttle 24/7. However, burning out kills creativity, motivation, and productivity. Be intentional about stepping back to refresh—take all your vacation days, disconnect after work hours, pursue hobbies, and spend time with loved ones. The renewed energy and insight gained from slowing down recharges you to tackle challenges faster and more effectively. Rest and rejuvenation lead to higher performance.  

Patience With Progress

I get it – as an entrepreneur, you want to see big results fast. You have huge dreams you’re eager to achieve! But real talk: lasting success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to build something sustainable. Avoid the temptation of unrealistic expectations that will just stress you out. 

Have a little faith and celebrate the small wins along the way. Don’t lose heart if you need to change course now and then. Stick to your long-term goals through the ups and downs. Slow and steady progress will get you there. Adopt a tortoise mentality of determined plodding rather than a hare mentality of racing and then flaming out.

Keep perspective and prioritize sustainability over quick fixes. Trust the process even when it feels slow. Those breakthroughs will come through steady effort.

When you feel that pressure as a leader to move full steam ahead, remember the power of strategic patience. Don’t have a knee-jerk reaction. Push the pause button and take time to reflect, show empathy, and improve your approach. Recharge yourself – you can’t pour from an empty cup! Stay the course and keep moving forward thoughtfully. 

Slowing down thoughtfully will actually help you reach your goals faster in a satisfying and sustainable way. With mindful, compassionate patience, you’ll set yourself and your team up for real, long-term success.