We often measure success in milestones: the MBA earned, the promotions climbed, the teams built, and the strategies executed. But what if the real metric isn't the years invested, but the moments we choose to seize, or ignore?
It takes about 600,000 minutes to master the art of leadership. That's roughly 10,000 hours of grinding through challenges, learning from failures, honing decisions, and building influence - the kind of deliberate practice that turns ambition into authority.
It takes less than 10 minutes to truly listen to a team member: to set aside your agenda, ask open questions, validate their perspective, and offer genuine support.
If you skip those 10 minutes, you wasted the 600,000.
Think about it: leaders spend decades accumulating knowledge; reading books on emotional intelligence, attending workshops on vision-setting, and navigating corporate ladders.
Yet, in the daily grind, it's easy to default to efficiency over empathy. Emails fired off without context. Meetings dominated by monologues. Feedback loops that feel more like lectures.
But leadership isn't a solo sport. It's a relay, where trust is the baton. Skip the listening, and that baton drops. Morale erodes, innovation stalls, and turnover spikes.
Gallup studies show that employees who feel heard are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. Harvard Business Review echoes this: active listening builds psychological safety, the bedrock of high-performing teams.
I've seen it firsthand in my interactions with founders and executives. One CEO, after years of scaling his company, faced a mass exodus. The culprit? He prided himself on "decisive" communication but rarely paused to absorb input.
It wasn't until a candid 360-review that he realized: his expertise was solid, but his connections were superficial. By investing those precious ten minutes per conversation, he turned the tide; retention improved, and ideas flowed freely.
So, as you lead today, ask yourself: Are you leveraging your hard-earned mastery, or squandering it? The next time a colleague shares an idea or concern, don't rush to respond. Listen. Really listen. Those minutes aren't a detour; they're the destination.
In leadership, as in life, the smallest investments yield the greatest returns.
Don't waste your 600,000.
This insight comes from my new book, Catalyst Leadership,
out now at bookstores everywhere.
