Stop Spreading Yourself Thin: Where CEOs Really Win

Not long ago, a CEO I advise leaned back in his chair after a long board meeting and sighed: “I feel like I’m spending energy everywhere… but I’m not sure it’s landing where it counts.”

I’ve heard versions of that question dozens of times. This is because being a CEO today feels like standing in the middle of a storm. Investor demands, customer expectations, new technologies, employee needs—the swirl never stops.

Even if you want to work hard and do everything, it is simply impossible.

Therefore, the real art of leadership is not in doing everything, but in choosing where to place your scarce energy so it creates the biggest ripple effect.

Over years of watching CEOs succeed (and stumble), I’ve seen six areas to place your energy that make the difference.

Let me share them with you—through the stories of leaders who’ve lived them.

Don't spread yourself too thin!

1. Purpose = Power

A retail CEO I worked with once realized her senior managers could recite last quarter’s sales down to the decimal—but few could tell you why the company existed beyond making money.

That’s when she introduced a simple rallying cry: “We’re here to help people feel confident every day.”

It wasn’t just a slogan. She started weaving it into hiring decisions, product launches, and even performance reviews.

Over time, employees stopped just chasing numbers; they started connecting their daily work to something bigger. The numbers take care of themselves—all metrics look really good, despite not being chased.

That’s the magic of purpose. And when you combine it with clarity—a simple, credible story about where the company is headed—suddenly people know not just what to do, but why it matters.

2. Focus >= Busy

I once watched a newly appointed CEO inherit a strategy document that listed 100 “top priorities.” No wonder nothing was moving.

She flipped the script with a simple 369 framework: Now, Next, Never.

• Three things we’ll do now.

• A short list of six things for next.

• And the courage to declare what we’ll never do, no matter how shiny it looks. Notice that the Never list is much longer!

It was tough—especially saying no to ideas that seemed exciting.

But the payoff was huge.

Employees no longer felt like they were drowning in competing initiatives. They knew exactly where to put their energy.

3. Capability + Capacity = Fuel for Growth

At one B2C company, the CEO stood on stage and painted an inspiring vision for becoming AI-powered.

The applause was loud, but afterward, a junior engineer pulled me aside and whispered, “That’s great… but we don’t even have the right tools or training to get there.”

That’s the capability gap. Ambition without capability is like pressing the gas pedal with no fuel in the tank.

The CEOs who get this right do two things in parallel:

1. Invest in people. Upskilling, retraining, and preparing employees for a fast-changing world.

2. Invest in technology. Tools that enable, not frustrate, performance.

And let’s not forget organizational capacity.

I’ve seen companies where anxiety and burnout were bigger obstacles than skill gaps.

CEOs who openly acknowledge those realities—and act on them—create the space for people to perform at their best.

4. Determination ==> Contagious Drive

One CEO I know took over a legacy manufacturing firm that had been slowly losing ground. The mood inside was flat—employees didn’t really believe the company had a future.

Instead of bombarding them with spreadsheets, he started telling stories.

Stories about the company’s roots, about customers they’d helped, about what the next decade could look like if they leaned in.

He was transparent about the challenges, but he also showed unmistakable belief that they could win.

Over time, the energy shifted. People started caring again. Drive spread from the top down—because employees believed their leader was determined.

Determination isn’t cheerleading. It’s credibility, consistency, and the conviction that the future is worth chasing.

5. Complexity != Speed

A consumer goods CEO once joked to me, “We’re great at starting things, terrible at stopping them.” The company had ballooned into dozens of brands, hundreds of SKUs, and endless layers of process.

He made a bold move: cut the product portfolio by 40%. At first, people panicked—less felt like loss.

But soon, employees realized they could finally focus on the winners, streamline supply chains, and actually execute with excellence.

Reducing complexity is counterintuitive for many leaders, but it’s liberating.

It frees up resources and makes the whole system move faster.

6. Misalignment ==> Drained Energy

Maybe the most dangerous thing I’ve seen in organizations isn’t lack of energy—it is leaders who aren't aligned.

At one professional services company, the top team had deep rivalries. They smiled in public but undermined each other behind closed doors.

The result? Confusion, duplication, and a culture of mistrust trickled all the way down.

The breakthrough came when the CEO forced a reset: a series of brutally honest conversations where the team aired frustrations, rebuilt trust, and committed to aligning—even when it meant giving up turf.

It wasn’t comfortable, but it was transformative.

That’s what alignment is about—not avoiding conflict, but making sure it’s productive instead of corrosive.

Wrapping It Up

Investing energy in these six areas—purpose, focus, capability/capacity, drive, simplicity, and alignment—isn’t “nice-to-have.”

It's what separates CEOs who survive from those who truly lead.

And the truth is, the world isn’t getting simpler. The swirl of demands won’t go away. Which is why being intentional about where you put your energy is everything.

Most CEOs already know what they can do. The real question is:

What should you do, i.e., the moves that create the biggest ripple effect, inspire your people, and set the course for years to come?

When leaders answer that question well, the whole organization feels it. That’s when the extraordinary happens.