The leadership skill we’re losing: knowing when to slow down

In a culture obsessed with speed, reflection has become a strategic advantage. The most effective leaders know that patience often produces the best decisions.

On a recent trip to my husband’s hometown in India, I was stopped in my tracks by a thousand-year-old banyan tree, tall and regal, standing in the middle of an ancient temple. A vast canopy was supported by roots that had taken centuries to reach the ground. The temple had been built around it, not the other way around, in quiet acknowledgment that some things cannot—and should not—be hurried.