Achieve More by Doing Less – The Leadership Mindset That Changes Everything

The Productivity Trap: Are You Busy or Effective?

In today’s fast-paced business world, busyness is often mistaken for effectiveness.

Leaders fill their schedules with back-to-back meetings, endless emails, and urgent tasks, believing they’re driving success. But in reality? Many are just spinning their wheels.

The most exceptional leaders and organizations achieve more not by doing everything, but by doing the right things exceptionally well.

This is the foundation of strategic leadership: ruthlessly prioritizing, eliminating distractions, and focusing only on what truly moves the needle.

Leaders like Greg McKeown (Essentialism), Tim Ferriss (The 4-Hour Workweek), and Cal Newport (Deep Work)have all made a compelling case for doing less, but better.

A Hard Lesson in Focus: How This Transformed My Leadership

I’ve seen this principle firsthand. At 1st National Bank St. Lucia Limited, I led a transformation that took a struggling institution and turned it into an award-winning powerhouse.

At first, our leadership team tried to solve everything at once, customer experience, technology, operations, lending, risk, compliance. The result? Slow progress everywhere, breakthroughs nowhere.

The biggest shift came when we stopped trying to do it all and focused on three game-changing areas:

·      Digital transformation – Upgrading technology to improve efficiency.

·      Customer experience – Becoming the most customer-centric bank in the region.

·      High-value lending – Targeting corporate and SME clients for sustainable growth.

The result? Revenue surged, customer loyalty skyrocketed, and the bank became one of the Caribbean’s fastest-growing financial institutions.

The lesson? Success doesn’t come from doing more, it comes from doing less, with greater focus and excellence.

Prioritization: The 80/20 Rule in Leadership

What the Experts Say: The Pareto Principle (80/20 Rule) states that 80% of results come from 20% of efforts.

This means:

·      Most of what you do doesn’t drive real impact.

·      A few key priorities create the majority of success.

·      Great leaders know what to say “no” to.

Real-World Example – Apple’s Focus on Simplicity When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, the company was struggling with dozens of scattered projects. His solution? Cut 70% of them.

Instead of doing everything, Apple focused on just four product lines: Consumer desktops Professional desktops Consumer laptops Professional laptops

The result? Apple went from the verge of bankruptcy to becoming the most valuable company in the world.

Leadership Application – Ask Yourself: What 20% of activities drive 80% of your impact? What is taking up your time, but delivering little value? Eliminate it. What is truly moving the needle? Double down on it.

The Power of Saying “No” – Why Less is More

What the Experts Say: Greg McKeown (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less) argues that successful leaders say “no” far more than they say “yes.”

Why?

·      Saying “yes” to everything leads to mediocrity.

·      Saying “no” to the non-essential creates space for greatness.

·      Strategic leaders protect their time like a scarce resource.

Real-World Example – Warren Buffett’s “Two Lists” Strategy Billionaire investor Warren Buffett uses a simple but powerful approach:

1.     Write down your top 25 goals.

2.     Circle the five most important ones.

3.     Everything else? Ignore it completely.

Buffett’s lesson? The key to success is not just prioritizing the right things—it’s eliminating everything else.

How I Applied This at Unicomer OECS At Unicomer OECS, there was constant pressure to chase every growth opportunity. But not all growth is good growth.

Instead of expanding in every direction, we made tough choices:

·      Declined partnerships that didn’t align with our long-term strategy.

·      Focused on core markets instead of diluting resources.

·      Eliminated projects that drained time but added little value.

The result? Growth became more sustainable, strategic, and profitable.

Leadership Application – Ask Yourself:

What projects, meetings, or commitments are draining your time without delivering real impact?

How can you start protecting your time for what truly matters?

Deep Work vs. Constant Distraction – The Power of Focus

What the Experts Say: Cal Newport (Deep Work) argues that the ability to focus deeply on one thing at a time is the rarest and most valuable skill in leadership.

Great leaders guard their time from distractions.

Real breakthroughs come from uninterrupted, focused thinking.

Most people are busy but few are deeply productive.

How I Applied This – “No-Meeting Mornings” at 1st National Bank In banking and retail, meetings dominate calendars, emails flood inboxes, and decisions happen in real-time.

But my biggest breakthroughs didn’t happen in meetings, they happened in focused strategy sessions with zero distractions.

At 1st National Bank, I created a “No-Meeting Mornings” rule, where key leaders had uninterrupted deep work time before noon. The impact?

·      Better strategic thinking.

·      Faster, more informed decision-making.

·      Less reactive leadership, more proactive problem-solving.

Leadership Application – Ask Yourself: When was the last time you blocked out deep work time for strategic thinking? Are you just reacting, or creating space to lead proactively?

Why This Mindset Should Be on Your 2025 Leadership Playbook

The world rewards output, but the best leaders focus on impact.

If you want to achieve more, you don’t need more effort, you need more focus.

Prioritize the 20% of actions that deliver 80% of results. Say “no” to distractions so you can say “yes” to excellence. Protect deep work time, because strategy requires space.

If you want to level up your leadership, apply this mindset in 2025.

LET’S TALK: Engaging the Leaders Who Get It

High-impact leadership isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing less, better.

·      How do you filter out distractions and focus on what really moves the needle?

·      What’s one thing you’ve stopped doing that has made you a more effective leader?

Let’s discuss in the comments!