Many leaders believe their role is to generate ideas, launch initiatives, and keep the roadmap full. This creates an impression of productivity, but activity is not the same as progress.
The best leadership is often about subtraction, not addition.
Jack Dorsey once described the CEO role as an editorial function. Out of thousands of possibilities, the real task is to narrow the focus to the few that matter most.
In today’s business environment, where opportunities expand at an unprecedented pace, particular with generalized tools like AI, this framing is more important than ever.
Editing vs. Adding
Adding creates the appearance of momentum. New features, AI pilots, or projects provide stakeholders with something tangible to point to.
But it also creates distraction and removes focus. Priorities collide, budgets expand without purpose, and execution becomes fragmented.
In my opinion, editing is a better approach. It demands clarity and forces a decision about what should remain. When companies cut twenty initiatives down to two, they actually accomplish more than their peers who tried to keep everything in motion.
The Three Dimensions of Editorial Leadership
Jack Dorsey described three areas where leaders must edit.
The first is people. Great leaders recruit the right talent and address the elements that slow progress. Editing in this case is not always about removing someone. It can also mean reshaping roles or adjusting ownership so the team can move in a coordinated way.
The second is communication. Internally, clarity is required on what matters over the next thirty days, three months, and a year. Externally, leaders must present a story grounded in reality.
The leaders who edit their story down to proven outcomes often build more trust with customers and investors.
The third is resources. Editing here means focusing capital and revenue on what will sustain the business. Spreading resources thinly across multiple projects almost guarantees disappointment.
Concentrating resources on fewer moves compounds returns and builds resilience.
Why Does Editing Feel Harder?
Adding can feel exciting and grand, but editing rarely attracts the same attention. Instead, success looks like simplicity. And simplicity does not make for a dramatic board update.
Boards want activity, teams want to build, and the broader culture of technology still celebrates the launch more than the outcome. Yet simplicity is what actually sustains momentum.
Leaders who edit well may look like they are doing less, when in reality they are clearing the path for their teams to move faster and with greater clarity.
Practical Applications for Leaders
The challenge is consistent across founders, investors, executives, and boards. Too many priorities, too much capital spread thin, and not enough clarity on execution. Leaders who think like editors approach this differently.
They focus their strategies until only the essential priorities remain. They invest in systems that scale rather than patchwork fixes.
They direct resources toward initiatives that strengthen the business and remove those that create distractions.
Above all, they preserve execution capacity by ensuring their teams have a small set of clear, aligned goals.
Leadership by Subtraction
The leaders who succeed in the current environment will be those who edit.
Think of it this way. teams rarely remember the projects that were cut. They remember the clarity that remained. Leadership by subtraction produces focus, momentum, and resilience.
