When More is Less

"The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."  – Stephen Covey

Several years ago, I began working with a new client—a $100M+ services business. During our two-day kickoff workshop, the executive team aligned beautifully on their long-term direction and identified two clear, organizational priorities for the year ahead. As we went around the room sharing closing thoughts at the end of our second day together, several team members contrasted our session with their planning process from the prior year. They had emerged from that one with twenty "priorities." 

When I asked how many they'd accomplished fully, the answer was telling: "None."

This scenario has played out countless times across my decades of coaching leaders. The math is simple but brutal: when you divide limited resources, time, energy, and attention across too many things, you get limited progress on all of them. More initiatives, even if they’re labeled “priorities,” rarely translate to meaningful progress. Rather, the inverse is true and they result in almost none.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. 

Here, we’ll identify the three major costs of scattered focus and explore a practical approach to accomplishing far more, by doing less. Most importantly, you'll learn how to identify and execute the vital few initiatives that will drive the majority of the results and success you seek.

The Hidden Cost of "More"

Strategic dilution is one of the most expensive mistakes a growing company can endure. When resources and attention are divided across too many initiatives, the output is inevitably limited across the board. This approach creates confusion about the direction of the organization, increases internal conflict, and erodes confidence in leadership. After all, what are leaders doing if they're not making decisions about what matters most?

Pursuing too many things is an easy trap that ensnares many. 

Entrepreneurial and growth-minded leaders like us are wired to see opportunities everywhere. Your customer suggesting a new product idea? It could open up a whole new market. A potential acquisition? It might be transformative. That new technology? It could revolutionize your operations. Each opportunity looks promising in isolation, and saying “no” feels like leaving money on the table.

This is a prime example of fear-based decision making. You’re likely familiar with the phrase  fear of missing out (FOMO). FOMO is fear-based scarcity thinking causing us to believe if we don't pursue the opportunity in front of us now, we'll miss out forever.Though FOMO may be understandable, it drives horribly inefficient strategic choices. 

Fear-based decisions are particularly common among entrepreneurs who haven't evolved their self-image at the same pace their firm has grown (read more about this in “What to Do When Your Business Outgrows You”). The very qualities that make one excellent at starting a business—being scrappy, fast-paced, and unstructured—routinely become serious limitations as the organization scales.

The Three Major Casualties of Doing Too Much

The cost of trying to do too much is far higher than most leaders realize. Let's examine three major casualties:

1. Leadership Effectiveness

When you're juggling multiple initiatives, your ability to think clearly and make sound decisions dwindles. You lose the critical "thinking time" necessary for strategic leadership. Instead of serving as your organization's "true north," pointing clearly to what matters most, you become a source of confusion as your own time and focus are diluted and diminished.

2. Team Performance

This confusion cascades through your team. Multiple competing priorities undermine role accountability and create unclear reporting structures. When accountability becomes fuzzy, the entire framework we use to drive results begins to crumble.

Worse, high performers who crave clear direction and meaningful progress become frustrated because they want to see how their work connects to the organization's most important priorities. Meanwhile, your lower performers find it easier to hide behind the chaos, using "too many priorities" as an excuse for poor execution. The result? Slow progress, decreased engagement, increased burnout risk, and difficulty retaining top talent.

3. Execution Outcomes

The most severe effect of doing too much is to execution. Critical initiatives—the ones that could truly transform your business—rarely reach completion. Resources are simply spread too thin to drive meaningful change. Projects start, stop, and flounder, increasing costs and the odds of damaging your credibility with customers and stakeholders.

Ironically, the most challenging, most critical things you must accomplish often wind up at the bottom of everyone’s list and focus. They simply get lost in the mix, confusion, and conflict surrounding the simultaneous pursuit of too many things. Over time, this weakens your competitive position as opportunities slip away due to slow and/or sloppy execution.

The Power of the 80/20 Rule

The solution lies in understanding and applying the Pareto Principle to prioritization. In 1906 Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto famously observed that 80% of Italy's wealth was owned by 20% of its population. The same pattern—that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes—appears consistently in business and in life. In an organizational setting, the implication is that a vital, small number of initiatives drive most significant results.

Think of your priorities like a line of dominoes waiting to be toppled in sequence. The trick is learning to identify the "lead domino" that, when pushed, will knock down the most others in line. Just as Pareto's observation revolutionized economic thinking, this principle can transform how you approach priority-setting and resource allocation in your firm.

Clarity Creates Momentum

When you focus on fewer, clearer priorities, something remarkable happens: momentum builds. This isn't about doing less—it's about achieving more through better strategic choices and more disciplined focus.

Communication around your priorities will become both easier and more effective. Instead of trying to keep twenty balls in the air, your team will focus on meaningful updates and progress on a vital few initiatives that truly matter.

All of this creates a virtuous cycle: better strategic choices and a small number of priorities enable clearer communication, which leads to better execution, which builds confidence and momentum, which in turn drives better results.

How to Make It Happen

So, how do you let go of the majority of your firm’s “priorities” and instead focus on the vital few things with the biggest impact on your operation? Let’s consider three simple phases: Assessment, Alignment, and Execution. 

1. Assessment Phase

Identify your firm’s #1 Addressable Challenge (#1 AC). It’s the problem or opportunity you MUST resolve to unlock the next phase of your organization’s growth (read this article for a deep dive on the process). When your #1 AC is clearly defined, evaluate all current projects and initiatives through this lens. Be ruthless in eliminating or deprioritizing those that don't directly align. This requires courage—the courage to say "no" to good ideas in service of the vital few great ones. Your goal is to identify the 1, 2 or 3 major initiatives required to fully resolve the #1 AC. 

2. Alignment Phase

Next, create alignment. Ensure your leadership team not only buys into your sharper focus, but joins you in eliminating non-priorities. Assign single-point accountability to each of the #1 AC initiatives and agree on clear success metrics.

Communicate your #1 AC and its corresponding initiatives to all employees and ensure that rhythms are put into place to maintain accountability, communication, and focus firm-wide throughout the year.

3. Execution Phase

Finally, it’s time to execute. The key to maintaining focus is having discipline to avoid scope creep. Say "no" far more often than "yes." Monitor progress consistently and course-correct early and often. The Priority Planning Tool (shared here and available in my book, Creating A Culture of Accountability) will help you structure these crucial initiatives and maintain clarity throughout execution.

Conclusion

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully."   – Steve Jobs

Remember the client whose planning session I described at the beginning of the article? They achieved more in the ensuing six months than they had in the previous two years by focusing on just two clear priorities. Their success came not from doing more, but from having the courage to do less, far better.

As you reflect on your own organization's progress, consider: 

• Have we been spreading our resources too thinly?
• What is our #1 Addressable Challenge for the coming year? 
• What "good" initiatives might we need to say "no" to in service of what matters most?

Remember: Doing less, better = Accomplishing more.

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