Why the Best Leaders Don’t Try to Figure It Out Alone
The most successful leaders I know don’t struggle with effort.
They struggle with time.
Not because they don’t work hard.
But because they spend too much time circling decisions they already feel the answer to.
They revisit the same questions.
They debate the same trade-offs.
They delay moves they know are inevitable.
Not from lack of intelligence.
But from being too close to the problem.
Coaching isn’t about support. It’s about speed.
High performers don’t need cheerleaders.
They need:
Faster clarity
Cleaner decisions
Fewer costly detours
Someone who can see the pattern they’re inside of
This is why elite leaders, athletes, and executives all have coaches.
Not because they’re unsure.
Because they value collapsing timeframes.
A good coach doesn’t add more thinking.
They remove unnecessary thinking.
When you’re inside the business, everything feels equally important.
One of the biggest costs I see with founders is decision drag.
You know the move.
You just haven’t made it yet.
So you:
Gather more data
Ask one more opinion
Rework the plan again
Wait for clarity that never arrives
Meanwhile, months pass.
A third-party perspective cuts through this instantly.
Not because they’re smarter than you.
But because they’re not emotionally attached to the outcome in the same way.
They can name what you’re avoiding.
And say the thing everyone else tiptoes around.
This is where experience matters.
Not all coaching is created equal.
The real value isn’t questions.
It’s pattern recognition.
After 20+ years of working with founders, executives, and leadership teams, I don’t just hear what’s being said.
I see:
Where leaders outgrow the role that built the business
Where “strategy” is actually fear in disguise
Where delegation is blocked by identity, not skill
Where growth is stalled by decisions that haven’t been owned yet
Frameworks matter here.
Because frameworks turn emotion into action.
That’s the work I do through my EVOLVE methodology and leadership models.
Not theory.
Application.
The first step is knowing where you’re misaligned.
Most founders don’t need a full reset.
They need role clarity.
Clarity on whether they should be creating, operating, or leading growth right now and what they should stop doing immediately.
That’s exactly why I built the CEO Quiz.
It’s not a personality test.
It’s a mirror.
And for many leaders, it explains why things feel heavier than they should.
If you want a clear starting point, take it here:
👉 www.heykareen.com/ceo
When you’re ready to move faster, there are three ways we work together.
Different leaders need different levels of depth and speed.
That’s why I offer three distinct paths:
A private, in-person weekend intensive
For leaders who want deep, focused, one-on-one work to fundamentally reset how they lead and scale.
One-on-one virtual sessions
For founders who need expert eyes on a specific issue and want clarity without delay.
The Founders Retreat
A small, curated group experience for leaders ready to step out of the noise, think strategically, and anchor how they want to lead in the year ahead.
Each exists for the same reason.
To help you stop circling and start deciding.
Before you move on, consider this.
What decision have you been revisiting longer than it deserves?
Not because you don’t know.
But because you haven’t had the right perspective to move it forward cleanly.
A sentence is enough.
Sometimes naming the delay is the first step to collapsing it.
