Slow Down to Speed up: Leadership's Power of the Pause

In our fast-paced world, especially during times of crisis or economic challenges, it’s easy to get swept up in the mindset that everything must happen now.

How often do you find yourself racing from meeting to meeting, jumping between tasks, rarely giving yourself—or your team members—a moment to breathe, let alone reflect?

If you are like most leaders, this is what most days look like. Yet as I’ve written before in IndustryWeek, it’s easy to get caught up in so much doing that we lose sight of our true intention as leaders. In all this action and urgency, you may be overlooking one of the most powerful leadership tools you have: the pause.

Why We Struggle With the Pause

Even the most experienced leaders can struggle with slowing down—with silence, with reflection, with waiting long enough for others to think.

Two forces in particular make it difficult:

The addiction to action. We live in a do-do-do world, where speed is rewarded and action is often mistaken for progress. It’s no wonder we associate productivity with checking tasks off a list. But in this rush, we can easily fall into what I call the Doer Trap—solving problems for others, reacting quickly and mistaking motion for impact.

Think about your own calendar. How much time is blocked for thinking or reflection—for you or your team? Even if you set it aside, how often does it get overrun by meetings and “urgent” tasks?

Also, when you’re moving fast, it’s easy to get reactive. You fall back on habits, giving default responses or jumping to solutions without understanding what problem your team needs to solve—not because you don’t care, but because it feels quicker to just get it done.

The instinct to fill the space. How often do you hear a leader ask, “Any questions?” only to rush on before anyone can respond? Silence feels uncomfortable, so we jump in. We keep things moving. We’ve developed a habit of telling—without realizing it

But when we fill the space too quickly, we unintentionally crowd out the ownership, clarity and insight that might otherwise emerge from others.

Both instincts—action and filling space—are born of good intentions. But left unchecked, they crowd out learning and limit team members’ development.

A Wake-Up Call

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve struggled with both doing and telling. Nearly 15 years ago, when I was the senior director of a lean transformation across a large organization, I invited my business coach to shadow me during a series of meetings with my internal clients and team members.

As much as I intellectually knew the power of slowing down and asking questions—and even coached leaders in our organization to do this—when it came to my own situation, I fell back into the same traps, especially in a group environment. I thought I was asking thoughtful questions and creating space for others to reflect. But when my coach gave me feedback at the end of the day, she said bluntly: “You were like a lion, pouncing into the conversation and shutting people down with your enthusiasm to contribute your ideas.”

She was right. I was finishing people’s thoughts, offering solutions and moving the discussion forward—so much so that I left little room for my team to think for themselves.

That moment was humbling—and transformational. It led me to a new intentional practice: pausing long enough for others to respond, literally counting to 10 after I asked a question. This helped me resist the urge to jump in and sit with silence even when it felt uncomfortable.

And you know what? The impact was incredible. Team members came up with their own—and often better—ideas, my executive clients developed clearer insights into the operational improvements they owned and I was unburdened from the weight of feeling I was responsible for it all.

The Transformation: From Action to Pause and Reflect

I’ve seen the same realization play out with many leaders I work with. One powerful example comes from Agustín, a senior operations manager at a manufacturing plant in Europe.

After joining my Japan Leadership Experience and seeing firsthand how leaders were getting better results through creating conditions for more learning—and from his experience with our intentional daily reflection sessions—he returned with a new commitment: to pause, to listen, and to practice hansei—the Japanese word for deep reflection.

Inspired to intentionally pause, he’s instituted regular “hansei sessions” with his team to reflect on the progress of their lean transformation and strategic initiatives. These aren’t data reviews or performance meetings. They’re safe spaces for honest reflection, to ask questions: How are we leading, how are we transforming and where do we need to change ourselves as leaders?

Hansei is about listening to feelings and perspectives—not finger-pointing or hiding behind numbers. The pause he’s created gives people permission to voice concerns that might otherwise stay hidden in all the daily activities of running the business.

Just as important, those reflections end in action. Leaders leave with personal commitments—often involving habit-breaking choices—that push them out of their comfort zones. In Agustín’s words: “Hansei action plans should make you a better leader.”

That shift—from talking to listening, from reacting to reflecting—has changed not only how he leads but how his team engages with their lean transformation and each other.

The Benefits of the Pause

The discipline of pausing—whether in meetings, in conversations, or in daily work—creates ripple effects across your organization.

A pause:

Restores learning cycles. In lean and operational excellence, we talk about PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Adjust) as the foundation for scientific thinking and improvement. Yet, without pausing to “study and adjust,” improvement turns into endless “do-do-do.”

Gives others space to think. Silence may feel awkward, but it allows people to process, form their own ideas and find their voice. That ownership leads to stronger solutions and greater engagement.

Shifts you from reactive to intentional. A pause gives you the chance to connect with your purpose and choose how to respond, rather than reacting out of habit. You move from reactive to proactive. I call this an Intention Pause—a conscious moment to reset and align your actions with the impact you want to have.

Practicing the Power of the Pause

Like any leadership habit, pausing takes practice. It starts with self-awareness and small steps. Here are some ways to begin:

Count silently after you ask a question. Challenge yourself to wait five or even 10 seconds. Pause to give space to others before you speak again.

Schedule reflection. Protect time for you and your team to step back and ask: “How can we learn from what we’ve done? What do we need to adjust?” Pause to give space to discover insights.

Create safe spaces for honesty. Like Agustín’s hansei sessions, build regular opportunities where people can share openly without fear of blame. Pause to give space for transparency and dialogue.

These practices aren’t about slowing down for the sake of it. They’re about creating clarity, ownership and actionable insights.

The Hardest—and Most Impactful—Leadership Habit

Pausing is simple, but not always easy. It asks us to resist our instincts, to trust the silence, to slow down and make space for others.

But as leaders, the pause may be the most impactful action we can take: to shift from reactive to intentional, from telling to listening, from doing to learning.

So, the next time you feel the urge to jump in with an answer, try holding back. Let the silence do its work. You may find that the most powerful leadership move isn’t what you say or do—but the pause that allows others to grow.

This is the power of the pause. It’s not just a tool—it’s your leadership superpower.