Stop Over-engineering Solutions

If you need three meetings to solve a one-meeting problem, you have two problems: Your problem. And your process.

Over-engineering can feel almost productive, but it kills momentum. And momentum is one of the greatest competitive advantages you can have as a leader.

This doesn’t mean acting for the sake of speed. Good leadership requires deliberate, intentional decisions. But there’s a fine line between being thoughtful and stalling.

The best momentum comes from making intentional decisions, simply and without unnecessary delay.

Unfortunately, leaders sometimes disguise decision-avoidance by over-engineering their decision-making process.

This about times when:

• Putting off giving direct feedback… created more conversations.

• Spreading your energy across everything… left you drained.

• Becoming a bottleneck… meant decisions delayed until you were available.

Different scenarios, same theme: Over-complication and avoidance slows. things. down.

Here’s a quick filter I use before adding more steps, meetings, or layers:

• Do we actually need more data, or are we avoiding a decision?

• What’s the smallest test we can run right now to see if something works?

• What’s the actual risk if we act now instead of waiting?

Most of the time, less really is more. Fewer steps, fewer delays, fewer drawn-out decisions = more action, more speed, more progress.

Leadership Shift

Next time you’re about to “circle back,” pause and ask: Can we just decide this now?

And if you can’t, ask: What information do we actually need to move forward? Collect that data, regroup, decide, and move on.

To better,

Jess