One of my takeaways from Conscious Capitalism 2015 was something that Simon Sinek said during his keynote. I’m paraphrasing, but he said something like, “To become a great leader, keep in mind that consistency is way more important than intensity.” In other words, making small but consistent leadership improvements is much more powerful than making drastic, sporadic changes.

‘Consistency over intensity’ struck a chord because it’s closely related to a concept we just read about in Jim Collins’ Built to Last. Collins found that companies who strive to hit a consistent goal every year — rather than fluctuate between huge years and lousy years — are the best performers. He calls it the 20-mile march, because the same applies to someone walking from San Diego to Maine; the person who walks 20 miles every single day will get to Maine much faster than the person who walks 30-40 miles on days they’re feeling good but walks 0 miles other days to recover from having overextended themselves.

The idea of consistency over intensity is nothing new (does the fable of The Tortoise and the Hare come to mind?), but hearing Sinek talk about consistency just weeks after reading Collins’ concept of the 20-mile march really reinforced the idea for me. It was also validating, as it’s an idea we’ve written about in the past before ever reading the book or hearing the talk. I’m glad to see we’re on the right track with our core values, and—after hearing Simon Sinek’s talk—I’m eager to apply the same concepts to leadership.

Questions? Comments? Want to discuss further? Email me at scott@storiesincorporated.com.