You're Not Behind, You're Just Running Too Fast: Why Pace Determines Leadership Impact
Reading time: 8 -10 minutes
Quick Summary
Most leaders execute from anxiety and shame, not focus and clarity—they're running FROM something, not TO something
Efficiency (doing all things fast) kills you; effectiveness (doing the right things well) sustains you
Your personal pace becomes your team's pace—social contagion applies to speed and urgency
Four things suffer when you run too fast: your health, those you love, your work, and your team
Sabbath is the killer app: one day a week to remember you're human, not a productivity machine
Seasonal awareness matters: sprint seasons are okay if you know they have an end
I've got a nephew who taught me everything I need to know about pace.
Five years ago, he was just a little guy running his first 5K with our extended family over the holidays. Full of confidence, he announced he was going to win the race. And sure enough, when the starting gun went off, he took off at a full sprint—faster than everyone else.
We all knew what was coming.
About 500 yards later, his sprint stopped. He was walking. We passed him. The kid who started fastest finished somewhere in the middle, frustrated and exhausted.
Fast forward five years. Same race. Same nephew. Same sprint pace at the starting line.
Except this time? He kept it up. He maintained that blistering speed for the entire 5K. He almost won the whole race.
What changed?
He was older. Wiser. More mature. And most importantly—he was trained for exactly what he was doing.
Same pace. Totally different outcome.
The Question Every Leader Needs to Answer
What pace are you running at right now?
Not metaphorically. Actually. On a scale of 1 to 10, how fast are you moving in early 2026?
Most leaders I coach are running at an 8 or a 9. Some are at a 10. And here's what I've discovered: most leaders are running way too fast.
But it's not because they love the speed. It's not because they're wired for it. It's not even because the work demands it.
"Most leaders execute from anxiety and even shame, not focus and clarity."
They're not running TO something. They're running FROM something.
Running from the fear of falling behind. Running from the shame of not being enough. Running from the scarcity belief that says, "If I don't do more, faster, it all falls apart."
And that kind of running? It will kill you.
Not metaphorically. Literally. The studies are clear: chronic hurry impacts everything from cardiac health to weight to sleep quality to your ability to be present with the people you love.
The Two Sides of Pace
There are two aspects of pace that every leader needs to understand.
First: Personal Activation
This is how fast you're running. Your internal speedometer. The RPMs you're operating at day after day.
And here's the reality: most leaders are focused on efficiency, not effectiveness.
Efficiency asks: How do I do all the things as fast as possible?
Effectiveness asks: How do I do the right things well?
The late, great Peter Drucker said it perfectly: "Effectiveness is about doing the right things well."
Simple. Hard.
When you're in efficiency mode, life becomes one more thing to knock off the list. You've got 25 tasks every single day. You're never present with the people around you. And no matter how fast you run, you're always behind.
But when you shift to effectiveness, everything changes.
You ask: What are the 3 or 4 right things I should be doing right now? And how do I do them well?
Not fast. Well.
Second: Communal Activation
This is where it gets tricky.
Because it's not just about how fast you're running. It's about how fast you're driving others to run.
"The speed you are running at will impact the people around you."
You have extra input. Extra influence. Especially if you shaped the organization, founded it, lead it, or oversee a team.
Your pace becomes their pace.
We talked about social contagion in the self-awareness episode—how your emotions cascade to those around you. Well, guess what? Your speed does the same thing.
When you run too fast, lots of people get hurt.
The Four Things That Suffer When You Run Too Fast
Let me be specific about what happens when you live at an unsustainable pace.
1. It Hurts You
The research is overwhelming. Chronic hurry impacts cardiac health, weight, stress levels, and sleep quality. Your body isn't designed to sprint indefinitely.
You know this. You feel it. The fidgeting. The inability to sit down at the end of the day without your mind spinning. The sense that you're never quite caught up.
2. It Hurts Those You Love
Can you sit down at the end of the day and ask your kid a curious question about school? Or is it on to the next thing—dinner, tasks, the evening to-do list?
When you carry the efficiency mindset from work into your home, your family knows. They feel it. They can tell when you're truly present versus when you're treating them like another task to check off.
3. It Hurts Your Work
I'm not saying there's never a time to move quickly. Of course there is. But when you're always running too fast, your work gets sloppy.
Your creativity goes down. Your ability to see nuance disappears. Your enjoyment of the work evaporates. And ironically, the quality of what you produce decreases.
All the studies say the same thing: the things vital to creating great work go down when you're chronically rushing.
4. It Hurts Your Team and Your Organization
This is where personal pace becomes communal.
Over time, the speed you're running at becomes the speed your team runs at. They absorb your anxiety. They mirror your urgency. They feel the scarcity you're operating from.
And eventually? They burn out.
I've lived this. I've had seasons where I tried to do way too much and failed to eliminate or prune the right things. I had too much on my plate. And because of that, I lived out of a scarcity mentality: There's never enough time to _____.
Did it hurt me? Yes. I wasn't sleeping well. I wasn't Sabbathing well. I was fidgety even when I wasn't working.
Did it hurt those I love? Yes. It was harder—almost impossible—to slow down and be present in those moments.
Did it hurt my work? Yes. I wasn't producing the depth or quality I'm capable of when I'm focused on effectiveness instead of efficiency.
Did it hurt my team? Yes. I sped them up. I tried to drive them too quickly. And I could see it wearing on them.
Seasonal Awareness: When Sprint Seasons Are Okay
Here's the nuance: there are sprint seasons.
Sometimes you need to run harder for a time to get certain things in line. And that's okay—as long as you know it's a season.
A season has a beginning and an end.
My nephew five years ago was sprinting because he was excited and didn't know any better. He wasn't trained for it. He crashed 500 yards in.
My nephew five years later was sprinting because he had the speed, the training, the size, and the agility to sustain that pace for the entire race. In fact, he may have even sped up toward the end. That's how in shape he was.
The difference? He was trained for what he was doing.
So if you're in a sprint season right now, ask yourself:
Do I have the capacity for this pace?
Is this truly a season, or has this become my normal?
What's the end date?
If you don't have an end date, you're not in a sprint season. You're in chronic hurry. And that will break you.
Sabbath: The Killer App
This is why Sabbath is the killer app.
One day a week where you just get to be a human. You don't have to be a leader. You don't need to drive the world. You're actually reminded that God's driving it just fine without you.
And even the insecurity you feel about that—I'm actually not needed today—is part of the gift.
You get to just be. You get to replenish. You're reminded that you're a person with limits.
And here's the kicker: you can take care of it on Monday.
That thing you're anxious about? It will be there Monday. And you'll be better equipped to handle it after you've rested.
Leaders are running fast early in this year. You may even think you're behind.
But I want to point you to a practice that's helped me immensely: the Right Side Up Journal. I use it every single day for 10 minutes.
I sit down and chart out my day. I have to get focused on, What's the one thing I need to get done today? And then I see the whole scope of the day and realize—man, I'm actually going to be at a basketball game with my sons tonight. And the most important part of my day isn't the podcast recording or the coaching clients.
It's the conversations I'll have with my sons while watching that game.
It focuses me. It slows me down. It reminds me what effectiveness looks like.
Effectiveness Over Efficiency
Here's what I want you to walk away with today.
You are not behind.
You're just running too fast.
And when you slow down your pace, I bet your quality of life goes up. I bet you're more present—or a lot more present—to those you love. I bet your work sees more quality. And I bet your team will notice the difference.
They'll notice that you're not trying to drive them. You're collaborating with them. Co-leading with them.
"The way you personally drive others with pace comes from the way you're living it yourself."
Leader, I hate to remind you, but I'm going to: You have way more impact than you think. You have way more influence than you think.
The people around you are watching. They're feeling it.
And this is why all five of these spheres matter.
Your Next Step
Let me leave you with a couple of questions to sit with this week:
How sustainable is the pace you're running at right now?
And here's the challenging one:
What would your family say? What would your team say?
Talk to your spouse about it. Ask your team. You might be surprised by what you hear.
Friends, we're not here to fling information at you. We want to see life transformation.
We want to watch you move from someone who had no idea there were things to tend to below the surface—to someone with clarity on the five aspects of an H2 leader.
And my belief is that we come from a Creator who invites us to co-design our lives with Him.
If you don't believe that, you'll just get pulled along by your life. But I believe it's intelligent, personal, and purposeful. You're designed in a way that matters. And you're invited to collaborate in your own life.
If you're not, heads up, because social media, email, your team, the news cycles are going to tell you what you need to be about and what you need to be doing.
But we want to ask you to listen to the living God. To slow down long enough to ask questions about influence, health, self-awareness, design, and pace.
We love you. We're with you. We're for you. And we want you to continue to be transformed into an H2 leader.
It's not a destination. You don't get a prize trophy when you arrive someday. You're in direction of being a healthy, high-impact leader.