When was the last time you were bored? 

I mean really bored. Not tired or overwhelmed, actually bored, with nothing demanding your attention.

If you just laughed at the ridiculousness of the question – or can’t remember – then that’s an excellent reason to pause. 

What if, somewhere in the blur of schedules and commitments, we’ve all become too busy to be brilliant? 

What if we move so fast we’ve left our wisdom – and therefore the true source of our influence – behind?

Recently on the Inside Influence podcast, I spoke with Phill Nosworthy, speaker, author, dear friend and founder of The Nosworthy Group, a leadership development company with a dedicated following of Fortune-listed companies around the world. 

Phill’s No.1 leadership principle? 

The way you lead others is always a direct reflection of how you lead yourself.

For me and my life, this conversation could not have come at a better time. Here are four insights that, as a leader with a serious speed addiction, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about since.

Wisdom Has a Speed Limit, And You’re Moving Too Fast

Phill described a pattern he sees all the time with top performers: “It takes a couple of days to get out of work speed and into the holiday groove. Then around day three or four of our holidays, those beautiful ideas start bubbling up, that were just waiting for you to move at the speed of wisdom.”

I love that idea, moving at the speed of wisdom.

What if your best ideas aren’t missing. They’re waiting. But you’re just moving too fast to access them. Try to name the last time a breakthrough insight hit you during back to back meetings? It doesn’t happen. 

Clarity arrives in the shower, on the walk, in the pause.

The insight: Phill protects Mondays, completely meeting free, giving him a full day each week to move at his speed of wisdom. For me, it’s the early morning walk before big presentations. Not to rehearse. To fully arrive.

The decisions that will define your career aren’t made in the blur. They’re made in the pause. 

Imposter Syndrome Is Just Your Unprocessed Self

This one honestly hasn’t left my mind since I heard it.

Phill defines imposter syndrome as “the gap between the scale of an achievement and the volume of processing time you’ve given it”. 

I want you to read that again. 

Now let’s break it down. You get promoted, land a major client, speak on a career defining stage, but still haven’t acknowledged: I’m capable of this now. 

The achieving self has already moved on, but the processing self is lagging behind.

Then a next level opportunity arrives and the imposter starts to whisper: “Who do you think you are to think you can do this?” Now I approach these moments completely differently, instead of an indication that I’m not ready – I treat it as a signal to slow down and fully integrate the success I have earned.

The insight: Phill uses “ROC” (Relax, Open up, Connect) a dozen times daily. Micro check ins: Where am I at? What am I feeling? This is the practical work of staying current with yourself so your internal experience matches your external reality.

The voice asking “Who do you think you are?” isn’t the enemy. It’s a lagging part of you asking to be brought along. 

You Can’t Flog Yourself to Greatness

Phil often draws a line most high-performers miss: “You can’t flog yourself to greatness. You can only coach yourself there”.

Real growth demands failure. And you can’t sustain growth without self compassion in equal measure. For me, the alternative is always burn-out.

Most leaders are compassionate with their teams, but brutal with themselves. In my life, when developing any new content, the first draft is always rough. Recently I’ve been trying to talk to myself as I would someone I’m mentoring: “Focus on progress and not perfect.” This way I can get past the messy first draft, and into the real work of editing and refining.

The insight: You’ll never cultivate fierce grace in your leadership, if you can’t cultivate it first for yourself.

The most powerful leaders aren’t the hardest. They’re the most skilled at coaching themselves through the uncomfortable path of growth.

The Best Leaders Admit When They’re Working It Out

Phill made an interesting distinction between prescription (“do this”) and description (“here’s what I’m experiencing”). When working with leaders he finds they often default to prescription, even when description has more impact. 

Why? Because we believe our value comes from having all the answers.

We pretend to have it all figured out, whilst privately feeling completely lost. The key here is flipping from “Here’s the plan” to “I don’t know exactly how this will work, but here’s my current thinking…”.

The insight: Move more slowly towards certainty. In the space between question and answer, there’s room for collective wisdom. When you acknowledge you’re at your edge, this is when your team sees you learning.

People don’t lean in when we have all the answers. They lean in when we’re brave enough to admit we’re still working it out. 

Moving at The Speed of Wisdom

When you don’t learn to lead yourself, you plateau. 

Not from lack of talent, but because you’re running at full speed with no space to process, no permission to integrate, no room to grow, no capacity to access the wisdom that would unlock the next level of your impact.

The alternative is to unlock your own speed of wisdom. To treat self-leadership and self-compassion as the foundation everything else is built on.

To value yourself as much as you value everyone else.

Remember that question? When was the last time you were bored? 

Maybe a better question is: 

When will you slow down long enough to let your brilliance catch up?

Keep showing up.