The most exhausted leaders I know aren’t lazy – they’re over-functioning. They say yes to meetings that don’t need them, manage emotions that aren’t theirs to carry, and solve problems their teams could handle. They confuse motion with progress, urgency with importance.
But the most effective leaders I’ve worked with have mastered a different skill entirely: strategic subtraction. They don’t do more. They don’t do more. They do what matters… with surgical precision.
The most effective leaders do less — with surgical precision.
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Knowledge workers spend 41% of their time on discretionary activities that offer little personal satisfaction and could be handled by others. Meanwhile, studies on executive effectiveness consistently point to a single differentiator: the ability to focus energy on what matters most.
The question isn’t whether you’re busy enough. It’s whether you’re busy with the right things.
What 56 Million Years of Evolution Teaches Us About Energy
For the past five years, I’ve integrated equine-assisted learning into executive development through my certified EQUUS training. Working with over leaders of executive teams, early stage social enterprises, and grassroots community organizations, I’ve watched horses teach lessons about leadership that no business school curriculum covers.
Horses are masters of energy conservation. As prey animals, they can’t afford to waste motion: every step, every flick of the tail, every threatening kick has a purpose. In the wild, unnecessary energy expenditure doesn’t just create inefficiency; it creates vulnerability.
In the wild, unnecessary energy expenditure doesn’t just create inefficiency; it creates vulnerability.
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In the herd, hierarchy isn’t established through dramatic confrontations or constant assertions of power. It’s subtle and strategic. If one horse wants another to move, she’ll start with the gentlest cue: an ear flick. If that’s ignored, maybe a head toss. Then a tail swish. After several failed nudges might she escalate to a stomp or kick – but only as a last resort.
Why? Because every action has a cost. Loud, flashy energy draws predators. Quiet clarity keeps everyone alive.
The Executive Who Learned to Stop Stirring Up Dust
Katie, a brilliant purpose-driven executive, was not known for energy conservation. A self-admitted workaholic, she entered our arena determined to shift her overdrive tendencies. The horse she was partnered with, Teddy, led her into a dusty shed and began kicking up clouds of dirt until Katie coughed and her eyes watered.
Katie was stunned. The realization hit her immediately: “This is what I do. I stir up dust. I create motion, pressure, intensity – even when no one asked for it.”
That wordless feedback changed her leadership style more than months of traditional coaching ever would have. Six months later, her team reported feeling less stress, and her COO shared that the whole org feels like it can exhale again. They agreed: the dust had settled, leaving just what was actually mission-critical work to do.
The Science of Strategic Subtraction
Katie’s learning mirrors what I’ve observed working with hundreds of executives in equine-assisted sessions. Like horses, the highest performers aren’t the ones burning the most energy – they’re the ones who conserve it strategically.
Dr. Morten Hansen’s research at UC Berkeley bears this out. In Great at Work, he analyzed 5,000 managers and employees to understand what drives top performance. His finding: the highest performers don’t work longer hours or take on more projects. They work with focused intensity on fewer, high-value activities.
The highest performers work with focused intensity on fewer, high-value activities.
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Horses understand this instinctively. They don’t waste motion on unnecessary displays of dominance or reactive responses to every stimulus in their environment. A horse leading her herd will use the gentlest cue first – an ear flick, say – and escalate only if needed. Each action is measured, purposeful, conserving energy for what truly matters.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely’s research on decision fatigue reveals one reason why this horse wisdom applies so directly to leadership. Every decision – no matter how small – depletes our cognitive resources. Leaders who constantly say yes to low-value requests arrive at their most important decisions already cognitively depleted. They’re like horses who’ve been chased by phantom predators all day – exhausted before the most important threat even appears on the horizon.
Three Tools for Elegant Effort
Based on my work with hundreds of executives, here are three practical approaches for strategic subtraction:
Drop What’s Not Yours: Before your next week begins, identify three things currently on your plate that don’t actually require your unique contribution. Australian productivity researcher Dr. Carson Tate’s research shows that most managers could eliminate 30% of their activities without any negative impact on outcomes. The question isn’t whether you can do something; it’s whether you’ll advance your true goals by doing it.
Spot Overwork Patterns: Create awareness around your over-functioning patterns. Do you solve problems your team should own? Attend meetings where you’re not the decision-maker? One executive I worked with realized she was answering 200+ emails daily that could have been handled by others or ignored entirely. Delegating email triage – and literally ignoring dozens of the messages she received – freed up 90 minutes daily for strategic thinking, with no hit to her effectiveness.
Deliver Minimum Effective Doses: Before important interactions, ask yourself: “What’s the minimum effective dose here?” Instead of a 60-minute meeting, could you achieve the same outcome with a 15-minute focused conversation? Instead of a 10-slide presentation, could one well-crafted question get you the information you need?
The Competitive Advantage of Conservation
The leaders who master strategic subtraction don’t just avoid burnout; they unlock a competitive advantage. When you stop over-functioning, your team steps up. When you focus your energy strategically, your decisions carry more weight. When you model conservation, you give others permission to do the same.
In our acceleration-obsessed culture, the ability to subtract strategically is becoming a rare and valuable skill. Like horses who’ve survived 56 million years not by grinding harder, but by conserving smarter, the leaders who thrive won’t be the ones who do the most – they’ll be the ones who do what matters most.
Subtraction isn’t about doing less. It’s about choosing the investments of effort that are better aligned with your authentic goals.
What would change in your leadership if you subtracted just one thing that doesn’t actually need you?
Take our brief Subtract to Succeed diagnostic to identify your biggest energy drain and discover your natural conservation style.
