Hi Reader
I recently had to relearn something that embarrassed me as someone who advises high-performing leaders.
I was adding more tips, frameworks, and strategies to help a client improve their personal performance. Each suggestion was sound. Each approach had worked before. Yet their performance remained frustratingly inconsistent and felt ‘leaky’.
That's when it hit me: I was trying to, so to speak, increase water pressure by turning the tap up higher instead of removing the golf ball that was blocking the flow.
You know what I mean?
The breakthrough came when we stopped adding solutions and started identifying the hidden restrictors that were sabotaging everything else they were trying to implement.
Within three weeks, their performance transformed.
And not because they learned something new, but because they stopped doing the things that were unconsciously undermining everything else. Let me share my process for identifying the 'golf balls in the hose'...first though a quick word from our sponsor, VX SPORT™
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The Addition Addiction That Kills Performance
Leaders are conditioned to solve problems by adding: more analysis, more meetings, more systems, more oversight, more communication.
But here's what I've discovered working across sports and high-end business environments: Most performance problems aren't caused by missing elements, they're caused by hidden restrictors that choke the flow of everything else.
Kinda like what we were saying about ignoring the golf ball stuck in the hose. You can add all the new pressure you want, but until you remove the blockage, nothing flows properly.
The Five Flow Restrictors Choking Your Leadership Impact
So I’ve had to reflect a it myself and re-learn a few things.
After analysing dozens of leadership situations where "more" wasn't working, I've identified five common restrictors that sabotage even the best strategies.
Restrictor 1: The Assumption Trap
What It Looks Like: You assume your team understands what you mean by "quality," "urgency," or "excellence" because these concepts are clear to you.
How It Restricts Flow: Every instruction gets filtered through different interpretations, creating inconsistent execution no matter how good your strategy is.
The Golf Ball: Unaligned definitions of success.
What to Stop: Assuming clarity exists just because you've been clear.
What to Start: Before implementing any new approach, spend 10 minutes ensuring everyone defines key terms the same way. Ask: "When I say 'high-quality execution,' what specifically does that look like to you?"
A luxury hotel general manager discovered this when "exceptional guest service" meant different things to different departments. Removing this assumption restrictor improved guest satisfaction scores by 23% without changing one single service protocol.
Restrictor 2: The Information Overflow
What It Looks Like: You share comprehensive context to help your team make better decisions, believing more information leads to better choices.
How It Restricts Flow: Cognitive overload prevents clear action. People get paralysed trying to process too much information instead of acting on essential elements.
The Golf Ball: Analysis paralysis disguised as thoroughness.
What to Stop: Providing complete context for every decision.
What to Start: Follow the "One Key Message" rule. For each communication, identify the single most important thing they need to understand, then build everything else around that core message.
Restrictor 3: The Approval Dependency
What It Looks Like: Your team checks with you before taking actions they're capable of handling, appearing to show respect for your authority.
How It Restricts Flow: Decision velocity slows to your availability and input. Your team learns to wait rather than act, even when they have the expertise to proceed.
The Golf Ball: Unclear decision-making authority boundaries.
What to Stop: Being available for every decision that comes your way.
What to Start: Create explicit "decision maps" showing what level of decision can be made by whom without consultation. Make it clear that asking for permission within their authority zone is actually underperformance, not respect.
Restrictor 4: The Perfectionism Bottleneck
What It Looks Like: You review and refine work multiple times to ensure it meets your standards before implementation.
How It Restricts Flow: While you're perfecting version one, opportunities for version two, three, and four pass by. Your team learns to wait for your approval rather than improving through iteration.
The Golf Ball: Mistaking perfectionism for quality control.
What to Stop: Being the final editor on everything.
What to Start: Set "good enough to start" thresholds. Define minimum viable standards that allow implementation, then improve through real-world feedback rather than theoretical perfection.
Restrictor 5: The Solution Addiction
What It Looks Like: When problems arise, you immediately jump into solution mode, providing answers to help your team overcome obstacles quickly.
How It Restricts Flow: Your team stops developing problem-solving capabilities because they know you'll provide solutions. This creates increasing dependency and decreasing innovation.
The Golf Ball: Your helpful nature preventing their growth.
What to Stop: Being the primary problem-solver for challenges your people could handle.
What to Start: When problems arise, ask "What approaches have you considered?" before offering solutions. Force at least two potential solutions from them before adding your perspective. (Tip: try asking this “What solution do you think I might suggest?”)
The Flow Assessment That Changes Everything
Look at your most persistent performance challenge right now i.e. the area where you keep adding strategies but seeing minimal improvement.
Ask these diagnostic questions:
- Assumption Check: "Are we all defining success the same way?"
- Information Check: "Is too much context preventing clear action?"
- Authority Check: "Are decision boundaries clear enough for autonomous action?"
- Perfection Check: "Is my quality standard preventing valuable iteration?"
- Dependency Check: "Am I solving problems they could solve themselves?"
The answers will reveal your golf ball.
The Subtraction Strategy That Multiplies Results
Once you identify your primary flow restrictor, the solution isn't addition.
It's strategic subtraction….
Stop doing the thing that's blocking everything else.
Stop assuming clarity. Stop providing overwhelming context. Stop being available for every decision. Stop perfecting before implementing. Stop solving every problem yourself.
This feels counterintuitive because your restrictive behaviours often feel like leadership. But they're actually anti-leadership because they prevent the performance flow that would happen naturally without them.
The yacht industry executive I mentioned before discovered his golf ball was information overflow. He was providing so much market context that his sales team couldn't identify the essential action points. When he reduced his briefings to one key insight plus one specific action, their conversion rate improved 34% in an eight week cycle.
The Compound Effect of Clear Flow
When you remove performance flow restrictors, several things quickly happen:
Decision Velocity Increases: Without bottlenecks, choices happen at the speed of expertise rather than the speed of approval.
Creativity & Innovation Liberation: When people aren't waiting for permission or perfection, they start experimenting with better approaches.
Ownership Expands: Clear boundaries create confidence to act, which builds competence through experience.
Results Compound: Small improvements flow through systems without restriction, creating amplified outcomes.
Most importantly, your role shifts from being the performance bottleneck to being the performance enabler.
Your Flow Restrictor Audit
This week, instead of asking "What should I add to improve performance?" ask "What should I stop doing that's blocking performance?"
The answer is probably something that feels helpful, professional, or necessary. That's exactly why it's so hard to see and so powerful to remove.
Your team's performance is like water under pressure, it wants to flow. Your job isn't to push it harder. Your job is to remove whatever's blocking its natural movement.
What's your golf ball? And what would happen if you removed it this week?
Sometimes the best thing a leader can do is get out of your own way.
How does a leadership workshop with your team/people sound? If it feels like it might be useful let's chat. We'll discuss your priorities and craft a half or full-day workshop tailored towards your objectives & your people. Send an email to paul@theleaders.coach today.
Coming Next week: We'll explore another critical "stop doing" insight: The communication patterns that elite leaders use which actually undermine their authority and the counterintuitive approaches that build genuine influence instead.
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A Master's Voice....
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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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