Choosing Who to Invest In: Why Your Time Should Follow Action, Not Hope

Every leader has a few partners who take up most of their worry. They have enormous potential. They say the right things in meetings. Somehow, they never quite start.

So the leader calls them again, motivates them again, plans with them again. Weeks go by. Meanwhile a quieter partner who has been doing the basics every day hears from the leader once a month.

It feels like caring. Usually it's a misallocation of the most limited thing a leader has.

The clever combatant looks to the effect of combined energy, and does not require too much from individuals. Hence his ability to pick out the right men and use combined energy. — Sun Tzu

Follow the action

Sun Tzu wrote that the skilled general relies on momentum rather than demanding too much of individuals, and so is able to choose people and ride that momentum. In a team, momentum comes from the people who are already acting.

A useful rule: let your coaching time follow action, not hope. The partner who made five follow-ups this week deserves your attention more than the one with the best intentions and no activity.

This isn't about talent or charisma. Some of the best leaders I've seen started quietly, with no obvious gift except that they did what they said they would.

A simple way to sort your time

• Moving: partners doing the basics consistently. Give them the most of your time: regular one-to-ones, coaching on the next skill, help with their own new partners.
• Starting: new partners in their first weeks. Give them structured attention for a defined period, so they build habits early.
• Waiting: partners who aren't acting yet. Stay warm and available, invite them to everything, and make it clear the door is open the moment they want to move.

Nobody is abandoned in this. The difference is that you respond to movement instead of trying to manufacture it.

Why chasing potential backfires

When a leader spends most of their time on inactive partners, the team learns a quiet lesson: the way to get the leader's attention is to stall.

Meanwhile the people actually building feel taken for granted. Some of them drift away, which costs the team its most valuable momentum.

Reverse it and the message changes. Action gets attention. People who want more of your time know exactly how to get it.

A weekly check

Once a week, look at your calendar for the past seven days. Write down who got your coaching time, and next to each name, what they actually did that week.

If the names with the most time have the least activity, you've found your adjustment for next week.

So be honest: who is getting your time because of what they're doing, and who is getting it because of what you hope they'll do?