A sneaky leadership habit that costs money

When I first started my leadership coaching business, I dug into it like any other project plan that I was launching in corporate America. I started dreaming and scheming. I opened my spreadsheet and planned out revenue, income, and expenses.

When I was looking at expenses, I accounted for marketing expense, operational expense, business startup costs, and others. But I missed a big one. I overlooked an important obstacle that is most expensive to my business - procrastinating. The not doing, not acting. In the world of economics, this is opportunity cost—the cost of things we don’t do.

I often used the excuse that I was holding back and waiting for clarity on the right thing to do, or that a program needed a bit more refining before I communicated it, or tweaking everything until it was “perfect.” But what I was really hoping for was certainty— certainty that something I launched or an idea I shared would be 100% successful. I didn't want to look silly.

However, I quickly realized stalling on my ideas because I feared the unknown was costing me money—when I don't act on my ideas, I don't make any money. My biweekly paycheck in corporate America hid this; I still got paid every other Friday. I would have accomplished so much more as a corporate leader if I would have pushed my ideas out a bit sooner.

This is why at the end of each of my client coaching sessions, I ask, “What is yours to do?” Sometimes I hear answers that sound like taking action, but what's really happening is sneaky stalling. Our mind tricks us into believing we are taking action because it feels like we are busy (like learning more, making something prettier, etc), but these actions are not truly productive in moving closer to our goals. (See the sneaky stallers + tips below!)

• Instead of taking action, we decide to read one more book about it.

• Instead of launching, we make more edits to marketing copy.

• Instead of sharing for feedback, we perfect the presentation one more time.

• Instead of coaching an employee, we wait for "perfect" moments or gather more data.

All this procrastination FEELS like we're doing something because we are busy, but it just becomes a fancy way that we avoid uncertainty.

I had to learn to get things out of my head and into the world for real life experimentation and feedback. My goal now, as is for my clients, is to figure what the “enough” point is and get an idea into the world for feedback, experimentation and learning. 

I had to learn to lead with an experimenter's mindset (test and learn), not a perfectionist's mindset (tweak but never launch).

🔥 Here's the thing. Stalling is expensive. It keeps us from getting into action, making important career asks, getting valuable project feedback or even making a change that could benefit us. All this stalling and procrastinating is costly to your peace, your potential and your paycheck. Read below to get ideas to get into action - even while you feel doubt.

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PUT THIS TIP INTO ACTION

You might think that since I had the guts to leap from corporate America to become an entrepreneur, I must be fearless. Not true. Buddhist nun Pema Chodron says, “Usually we think that brave people have no fear. The truth is that they are intimate with fear.” When I feel fear, I ask myself some questions to discern if the fear means I should stop or if it's just coming from uncertainty and doubt: 

• Does this idea move me closer to the life/person/leader I want to become? Who I want to be?

• Does this align with my values?

If the answer is yes, it's time to take my smallest, bravest next step. 

Here are some tips to help you focus on action > perfection:

1. Know what your "enough point" is for your idea or project. At that point, get it out to group of people for feedback. I did this recently when I launched my Clarity & Confidence Collective. Once I had a general idea of what I wanted to do, I wrote the idea up and emailed about 30 previous clients and got their feedback and interest level. Previous me would have spent another month perfecting a web page. This approach of “good enough” shaved about 2-3 weeks off of my launch timeline and I got excellent feedback from future community members that I never would have thought of on my own.

2. Identify the discomfort you KNOW you will feel early on as you get ready to take action. How will you move forward while also feeling uncomfortable? When I can name early on the normal yet uncomfortable feelings I will experience, I can greet them with more compassion when they arrive. This might sound like, “Here's the doubt I knew I would feel about sharing this idea. This doubt means I care about sharing this idea and making it work.”

Remind yourself these feelings are normal AND take action while also feeling it.

3. Test small ideas or parts of your project. As an author, I often test ideas in my newsletters and on LinkedIn to engage comments and reactions before they make it into a book. This helps me determine whether or not an idea lands with an audience, what questions they ask about it or if it left readers confused. Breaking ideas into small parts feels more doable and actionable than publishing a large body of new work and hoping for the best. In addition, your audience can more easily receive it and give you feedback as you go along.

TRY THIS NEXT: Break a next step of a project or idea down into small steps. If the step feels too scary, break it down again. Then, take action.

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Kelli Thompson is an award-winning author, keynote speaker, and executive coach who specializes in helping high achievers advance to influential leaders in their organizations. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Closing The Confidence Gap: Boost Your Peace, Your Potential & Your Paycheck.

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