As leaders, we’re conditioned to think of fall as a sprint. We're nearing the last lap of the fiscal year, the season of tightening strategies, pushing performance, and ensuring momentum carries through the holidays. The pressure is real—and often necessary. But what if the secret to finishing the year well isn’t pressing harder, but slowing down?

Nature, after all, doesn’t rush. Trees release their leaves. The air cools. There’s a sense of exhale. Fall invites us to consider whether we, too, should create space for release, reflection, and recalibration.

The Power of a Strategic Pause

For CEOs, the instinct is often acceleration: more meetings, faster decisions, longer hours. Yet, as our CEO Dan Cooper once noted in “To Speed Up and Get Better Results, You Have to Slow Down,” speed without clarity rarely produces the outcomes we want. Instead, a deliberate pause—a slowed pace—can sharpen perspective.

This doesn’t mean disengaging. It means leading with intentional rhythm. Blocking out the noise, clarifying priorities, and ensuring the team isn’t chasing distractions disguised as urgency.

Letting Go to Lead Well

Autumn is about release. For leaders, that might mean letting go of initiatives that drain resources without producing impact. It might mean releasing a leadership habit—like constant availability—that diminishes focus. Elizabeth Shandy, in “Season of Change," points to how transformation often begins with subtraction, not addition. Fall invites us to do the same.

Ask yourself: What do I need to set down so I can lead with more clarity and presence?

Leading with Presence, Not Haste

When leaders slow down, they model presence. They ask better questions. They listen with more patience. And paradoxically, this posture often accelerates results because teams gain clarity, alignment, and confidence. The real enemy of high performance isn’t rest—it’s hurry.

A Fall Leadership Practice

Here are a few practices you might try this season:

• Schedule unhurried thinking time. Protect a weekly block for reflection and strategic foresight.

• Identify one thing to release. A project, a meeting, or even a mindset that no longer serves the business.

• Revisit your rhythms. Consider how your own pace shapes the culture of your team. Are you modeling health or hurry?

• Step outside. Sometimes the best leadership insight comes when you let your mind breathe in spaces that aren’t confined to conference rooms or spreadsheets.

The Invitation of Fall

Autumn whispers a counterintuitive truth: slowing down is not a threat to progress but a catalyst for it. CEOs and business leaders who embrace this rhythm will not only finish the year with greater clarity, but they’ll also enter the next with renewed vision and strength.