Episode 523 – “Progress is Progress: Even When You’re Crawling”

This episode reminds leaders that slow progress still counts. Paul Falavolito shares how consistency, direction, and endurance matter more than speed in achieving real leadership success.

Host: Paul Falavolito
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
performance through strong human relations, team building, and GOLA giving.
This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Paul fell of Aledo.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
It's episode five twenty three. Today's message is simple, but
it's one of those phrases that leaders forget far too easily.
Progress is progress, no matter the pace. There's this myth
in leadership that progress only matters if it's fast, flashy, invisible.

(00:47):
We've all felt it, the pressure to show results, the
need to hit milestones, the expectation that success looks like speed.
But let me tell you something I've learned from years
of leading teams, managing crisis, and building organizations from the
ground up. Progress is rarely fast. It's usually slow, uneven,

(01:09):
and messy. It's a series of half steps, retries, and
lessons learned the hard way. In leadership, progress sometimes looks
like keeping the lights on one more day when morale
is low. It's holding a tough conversation you've been avoiding.
It's showing up even when you don't feel like it.

(01:31):
That's still progress, and too many leaders discount it because
it doesn't look big enough. But the truth is slow
progress doesn't mean no progress. The ground you cover slowly
still moves you forward, and that's what counts. Think about
a plane taxiing on a runway. It's not flying yet,

(01:54):
it's not in the air, but it's moving slowly in
the right direction. That's still leadership. Some seasons of leadership
are takeoff speed, others are taxi speed, but both are
necessary to get you where you're going. Sometimes your progress
is obvious, new hires, new contracts, new wins. And sometimes

(02:19):
your progress is invisible. It's in the discipline, the consistency,
the decision to not give up today. But let me
tell you what separates real leaders from the rest. They
don't measure progress by pace. They measure it by purpose.
So let's get practical here for a minute. If you're

(02:39):
in a slow season right now, I want you to
do something for me. Pull out your notebook or open
your notes app, and write down three areas where you've
made progress this month. It doesn't matter how small. Maybe
you rebuilt trust with someone on your team. Maybe you
got your inbox down from one thousand to two hundred.

(03:01):
Maybe you just made it through a week that tried
to break you. That's progress. But here's the truth. The
leader who keeps showing up, even slowly, will always beat
the one who gives up because it's not fast enough.
We live in a highlight real world. Everyone posts their wins.

(03:22):
Nobody posts the late nights, the setbacks, or the failures
that led up to those wins. But behind every viral
success story is a long list of days where progress
looked like crawling. Leadership isn't about how fast you can move,
It's about how long you can keep moving when things
get heavy. There's a quote I love. Direction is more

(03:46):
important than speed. Many people are going nowhere fast. Just
let that sink in for a minute. If you're heading
the right way, even a slow crawl will still get
you to your destination. But if your sprint in the
wrong direction, all you're doing is burning energy. So stop
beating yourself up over the pace of your progress. Focus

(04:09):
on the path, focus on consistency, And I have one
more thought about this. Think about the tortoise and the hair.
That story has survived thousands of years for a reason.
It's not just about speed. It's about endurance. Focus in
the refusal to quit in leadership, it's the tortoise mindset

(04:35):
that builds legacies. Fast winds fade, sustainable habits last. Every
slow step compounds into something bigger later. You just have
to stay in motion to get there. Because the truth is,
no one ever looks back and says I wish I
had moved faster. They look back and say I'm glad

(04:59):
I never s stopped. So whether you're crawling, walking, or running,
keep moving. The ground you cover slowly still counts. This
has been the seven minute Leadership podcast, and I thank
you for listening.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
com