One Key Question Every Leader Must Ask
- weormond
- 6 days ago
- 1 min read
Ben Hunt-Davis coached the British Men’s Eight before the 2000 Sydney Olympics. For two years the crew hovered in 7th place, until Hunt-Davis changed one thing: He challenged every choice with a single question: “Will it make the boat go faster?” Training plans, diets, even social plans either passed the test or were dropped. Eighteen months later the boat crossed the line first and claimed Olympic gold.
The same filter works for teams off the water. Swap the wording to “Will this make the team better?” and use it whenever you’re about to make a new hire or adopt a new process, meeting, or metric. If the answer isn’t an emphatic yes - skip it. If it is yes, then implement, track, and adjust to be sure the promised benefit shows up.
Ruthless simplicity is not about saying no forever; it’s about saying yes to the vital few actions that move the dial on trust, clarity, collaboration and performance. Pose the question in every meeting, project kick-off, or budget discussion. As a leader, invite the team to challenge your own ideas with it. You’ll build a culture that prioritizes strategically, sheds distractions quickly, and treats continuous improvement as standard practice.
Ready to sharpen your focus? Check out our tools, templates and lessons learned for leaders and teams on our new Resources page: https://www.ormondassociates.com/resources
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