Letting go can make you a better leader. Here’s how

In early 2023, Shopify made a bold and deliberate decision that rippled through its entire organization. Without warning anyone or conducting a phased rollout, they removed over 12,000 recurring meetings from employee calendars. They put a company-wide pause on all Wednesday meetings, and consolidated larger group sessions into a single window each week.

From the outside, it looked like a scheduling adjustment. On the inside, it was an intentional reevaluation of how the company valued time, attention, and collaboration.

Surprisingly, the decision resulted in very little chaos. Teams adapted and work moved. Space led to clarity surfacing. Shopify reported that the shift freed up more than 322,000 hours annually of time that employees previously spent in motion, but not always in progress. This two-week experiment was an act of leadership that asked, “what are we doing simply because we always have?” For many, that became a permanent way of working.

Many organizations everywhere have practices and processes that persist by default. Meetings, reports, systems, and sign-offs become embedded not because they are essential, but because no one ever questioned them. But over time, demands on our attention continue to multiply. It becomes increasingly difficult to protect our time, and leadership needs to show its strength through discernment. They also need to let go of anything that no longer makes a meaningful contribution.

Our bias towards addition

Leadership, by its very nature, invites accumulation. Over time, it gathers layers: inherited systems, obligations that no longer serve a purpose. Often, there’s the comforting illusion that being across everything means being in control. But this is a fragile place to be. 

A study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology explored this human tendency toward addition. When researchers asked participants to improve an object, design, or process, they almost always added something, even when taking something away would have created a better outcome. The study revealed the instinct to equate improvement with increasing something. The act of removing feels risky because it disrupts what we know.

I’ve watched this play out in countless organizations. Leaders respond to a growing workload by creating new layers of process, new forums for communication, and new metrics for accountability. They do so with the best intentions. However each layer eventually becomes another brick in the wall of complexity. And before you know it, employees are spending more time on the process than their actual work.

The weight of more

A few years ago, I began using the phrase “red brick thinking” to describe the moment a leader stops adding and starts questioning. It came from an exercise I often run in workshops using a small, uneven LEGO bridge. When I ask how to level it, most people instinctively reach for another brick. They start to build higher, wider, stronger. It takes only one person to realize that balance comes not from addition, but from removing the small red brick that caused the imbalance in the first place.

That simple shift in perception can change the way a leader approaches everything. To lead with subtraction is to lead with discrimination, but in a good way. It means pausing before responding, questioning before committing, and creating space before filling it again. It invites the kind of simplicity and creativity that’s difficult to find when your calendar is full and your attention is divided across too many demands.

I worked with a senior executive who felt trapped by the very systems she had helped design. Her weeks were consumed by meetings, status reports, and requests for sign-off. When we examined her schedule, it became clear that she was operating inside a structure that no longer reflected her priorities. Together, we began removing the elements that had quietly accumulated: a report that no one read, a meeting that produced little value, and a responsibility that belonged elsewhere. Over time, her energy returned, her thinking sharpened, and her team grew more capable. It wasn’t a dramatic shift, but it was decisive, And it all started with the willingness to ask one simple question, “Does this still belong?”

Leading with subtraction

Letting go is not about abandoning responsibility or lowering standards. It’s a conscious act of leadership that requires courage, restraint, and trust. Doing this requires us to believe that we can create results by doing less. By releasing what no longer serves us, we create the capacity to serve better.

In the language of red brick thinking, we build every organization from necessary structure and unnecessary weight. Over time, those red bricks turn from supportive to obstructive and slow everything down. And when leaders choose to remove them, they don’t just reclaim efficiency, they reclaim perspective. They begin to see what truly matters, and they allow others to see it, too.

When you lead by subtraction, it’s measured, deliberate, and deeply human. It recognizes that progress isn’t always about movement. Sometimes, the most powerful thing a leader can do is stop, notice the weight they’re carrying, and decide that carrying less might just be the wisest way forward.

View the full article