Do not move like a snail

Hunt For Greatness

Milton Kamwendo

Picture a small business owner waiting for a quotation. The supplier promises to send it “shortly”.

Tomorrow becomes next week. Calls produce apologies, but no document. Eventually, the customer finds someone who responds.

The first supplier may have the product, experience and ambition. What is missing is timely and speedy movement.

Greatness is movement, but movement must respect time. An opportunity does not become yours because you spotted it first. A customer does not owe you endless patience. A dream does not advance because you keep announcing it.

Do not move like a snail. This is not a call to rush recklessly or to despise careful work. This is a challenge to stop dressing procrastination as patience and indecision as consultation. Move with purpose, preparation and a sense of urgency.

Decide without drifting

Some types of work move slowly because nobody will decide. A proposal circulates. Another meeting is requested. More views are collected. Meanwhile, the original question remains unanswered.

Consultation matters, but it must lead somewhere. Before inviting another discussion, establish what decision is required, who has the authority to make it and when it must be made.

Not every decision deserves the same treatment. A major investment requires serious examination. A small, reversible experiment can often begin with a limited commitment and clear safeguards. Do not demand the certainty of a completed journey before taking a manageable first step.

Ask yourself: What information would genuinely change this decision? What is the cost of waiting? What can we safely test?

There is courage in making a considered decision. There is also courage in admitting that the evidence calls for stopping. Strategic speed includes saying no promptly, not leaving people waiting indefinitely.

Remove the friction

Sometimes the problem is not a slow person but a slow process.

Imagine a school repair awaiting several signatures while each signatory assumes somebody else is handling it. Urging everyone to work harder will not clarify responsibility. Follow the work from beginning to end.

Where does it wait? Where is information entered twice? Which approval protects an important standard? Which approval merely repeats another approval? Who owns the next step?

Do not remove safeguards simply to appear fast. Remove confusion, duplication and unnecessary handovers. Give people the authority, information and tools appropriate to their responsibilities.

A leader who must approve every routine action can become the organisation’s largest queue.

Delegating responsibility while withholding every decision does not accelerate work.

Move work closer to the people equipped to complete it. Agree on boundaries and escalation points. Then let them act. Leadership should clear the road, not become another roadblock.

Act before excuses multiply

An unfinished task can acquire an impressive collection of explanations. The timing is wrong. The conditions are difficult. The idea needs polishing. Someone has not replied.

Some constraints are real. Name them accurately, then distinguish what they prevent from what they merely make uncomfortable.

An aspiring writer can draft a paragraph before securing a publisher. A community committee can establish responsibilities before launching its project. A business can speak to prospective customers before committing to expansion.

The next useful action does not need to be dramatic. It must be specific.

Replace “We should improve service” with “By Friday, we will identify where customers wait longest and test one improvement”.

Replace “I need to learn” with a scheduled hour of study.

Do not confuse preparing to work with doing the work. Preparation earns its place when it improves action, otherwise, it is a comfortable hiding place. Do not retreat into the shell of endless preparation whenever responsibility asks you to make a visible move.

Build a sustainable pace

A burst of urgency followed by weeks of neglect is not momentum. It is inconsistency. Build a rhythm that makes progress visible. Set realistic deadlines. Assign clear ownership.

Review the few measures that reveal whether the work is advancing. Address obstacles early rather than saving surprises for the deadline.

Speed requires capacity. Train people. Maintain equipment. Improve handovers. Do not demand faster delivery while ignoring the conditions needed to deliver well.

Rest belongs in this rhythm. Exhaustion is not proof of commitment. Careful reflection is not stagnation. Some work deserves slow attention because mistakes would harm people or require expensive correction.

The aim is not maximum speed everywhere. It is dependable progress where it matters.

Keep your promise to move

Let urgency mean something practical: answer, decide, deliver and follow through. Choose one overdue commitment today. Identify the real obstacle. Agree on the next action and its deadline. Then honour that commitment.

Do not make people grow old waiting for your “soon”. Do not spend another season polishing intentions that never become service.

Leadership is movement. Think carefully. Remove needless delay. Move at the pace your purpose and dream of greatness requires.

Milton Kamwendo is a leading international transformational and motivational speaker, and author of more than 15 books. He can be reached at: [email protected], WhatsApp: +263772422634.