The Instinct To Fix Things Too Fast

Hi Nik,

Every week I share one thing I have observed in the field of commercial leadership. This week it is about the instinct to fix things before listening.

I've noticed capable leaders walk into a new team, or a messy situation within an existing one, and reach for solutions within the first week. It is an understandable impulse, but more often than not it can cost more than it saves.

This week in the field

In recent conversations with commercial leaders stepping into new or restructured teams, I have noticed a familiar pattern. There is pressure to show early wins, so the instinct is to diagnose the problems quickly and start fixing them.

What I tend to see instead is that the leaders who hold off, who spend their first weeks listening properly rather than acting, end up with a far more accurate picture and a team that trusts them sooner.

What it means in practice

What seems to shift things most is replacing the instinct to survey or broadcast with something slower and more deliberate: individual, face to face conversations where people can say what they would change, what is working, and what they genuinely think, without a form standing between them and the truth. It takes longer than a questionnaire but in my experience, it works a great deal better.

The question to sit with this week

If you gave yourself the time before making a single change, purely to listen, what might you learn that you do not already know?

Curious where you'd score on this? Take the free CODE Leadership Scorecard, five minutes, free.