Hi Reader

Sometimes the best advice is the exact opposite of what everyone's telling you.

Last week's newsletter about challenging conventional wisdom struck a nerve. The responses made one thing clear: leaders are hungry for perspectives that go against the grain of popular thinking.

This week, I'm diving deeper into inverse logic.

We’ll look at those moments when the smartest move is the one that feels completely backwards. When success comes from doing less, not more. When strength shows up as restraint, not force.

These three real-life observations might make you question approaches you've never thought to question. They certainly made me stop and reconsider some of my own ideas about what effective leadership actually looks like.

Are you ready to think backwards?

TL/DR: Over-preparation kills adaptability. Projecting strength creates fragility. Constant connection prevents collaboration. The best leadership advice might be the exact opposite of what everyone's telling you.

The Preparation Paradox

Every week I try to meet at least one new person as I try to form new connections and friendships where I now live and work from. Over breakfast a few weeks back a luxury hotel GM piqued my attention when she mentioned that her most successful events are the ones she prepares least for. Not because she doesn't care, but because over-preparation creates rigidity that kills adaptability.

She told me about a high-profile client dinner where half the planned elements fell through last-minute. Her team, with their detailed script now binned, improvised solutions that exceeded the original plan.

"When we plan everything perfectly, we plan out all the magic and the chances to surprise and delight our guests".

Makes you wonder if, in both sports and business, our obsession with preparation might be preventing the kind of spontaneous excellence that creates memorable experiences? Maybe the question isn't how much to prepare, but how much space to leave for things to evolve naturally?

The Strength Inversion

Over coffee with a British guy who runs a sports management consultancy he mentioned something that's stayed with me since:

"Have you noticed that the athletes who try hardest to appear strong are usually the most fragile."

Over years he joined dots of experience and noticed that performers who acknowledge uncertainty and express doubt appropriately tend to be more resilient under pressure.

Kinda flips everything we think we know about confidence. Turns out, the people who never admit weakness often crumble when they encounter their first real limitation. Meanwhile, those who are honest about their struggles develop the psychological flexibility to handle setbacks. When I thought about it through the lens of my own experiences with athletes & players I think that we call strength might actually be brittleness, and what we call vulnerability might be the foundation of genuine resilience.

Perhaps we all need to re-examine the performance cultures we’re developing for people?

The Connection Contradiction

Some random conversations can challenge things we've believed or bought into for years. I was on a site visit for a half day with a local sports team. The head coach told me she'd improved team dynamics by spending less time with her people, not more. This might sound a bit backwards but she explained when I probed a bit

"When I’m constantly available, they’ll never learn to work things out for or amongst themselves."

Here’s what she did….She started being selectively unavailable. Not absent as such, but strategically unreachable for non-urgent issues. Because of this her team have begun to develop stronger relationships with each other and better problem-solving skills.

In your environment is it possible that your push for constant connectivity and open communication might actually be preventing the kind of organic collaboration that builds real team strength through interdependence and independence? Is the best way to bring people together is to sometimes, strategically, step away and let them figure it out?

The pattern here might be obvious by now: the soundbites, anecdotes and wisdom nuggets that tell they’ll make us better leaders often make us weaker ones. Over-preparation kills adaptability. Projecting strength creates fragility. Constant connection prevents real collaboration.

Here's a final twist.

The more you try to apply these insights directly, the less they'll work. I’ve found that Inverse logic isn't a new system to master.

I define it as being permission to trust what you already know but have been taught to ignore.

Want to know what’s real inverse logic?

Stop looking for better leadership techniques and start identifying & removing the ones that aren't serving you.

Watch this 1-minute 'Leadership Habit' Short...

What's more valuable as a leader - having Clarity or Answers?

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A Master's Voice....

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Another Newsletter you might find useful....

Jimmy Farris Be A Pro Founder I coach leaders to lead better and build stronger teams by being more prepared, reliable, and obsessed. Subscribe for weekly insights on leadership and high-performance. Subscribe​

Thank you for being part of the Leaders Coach community. The work on how to lead better is something you have to do alone. But you don't have to do it on your own. Onward and Upward, Paul Clarke

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