Depth Over Speed: Why Thoughtful Leadership Beats AI-Driven Output
Weekly Dose of Work Recovery Vol. 10.15.25
“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: what are we busy about?” - Henry David Thoreau
🗑️I bet I can guess which newsletters you send straight to the virtual trash...
Not this one, obviously…
The ones you do are the ones that scream ChatGPT. They're robotic, surface-level, and empty of actionable insight or genuine heart.
Because, same.
As a woman who receives a boatload of newsletters, if it reads like it was cranked out by AI, I’m a hard pass.
That may sound odd because as an Enneagram 3, I’m driven by efficiency. I respect the hustle of shipping fast with AI.
Unfortunately, when I looked in the mirror of my own work this summer, I realized how often I was choosing speed and volume over quality and depth too. My bad!😒
Somewhere along the way, the process became the enemy. The rise of AI and our collective obsession with speed led me to chase output over originality. But the messy middle—the part that’s uncertain, uncomfortable, and often slower than I’d like—is where my best ideas are born.
They say how we do one thing is how we do everything. So it was time to redo my way of working.
Now I’m leaning into the most human part of creation - depth work. And all of its wondering, the revising, the sitting with something long enough to find its truth. I’m reminding myself that clarity comes through wrestling with the work, not by racing past it.
Speed might help me check more boxes, but it can also disconnect me from why those boxes were there in the first place.
Translating Depth Goals to Action
Depth isn’t slowness—it’s precision.
Smart, unschool'd leaders know that choosing to work with intention instead of working on autopilot is executive functioning at its finest.
Here’s what it looks in practice:
Fewer, truer priorities: Focus on what actually moves the needle instead of reacting to every new idea or request.
Thoughtful decision-making: Slow down enough to weigh the ripple effects, not just the immediate gains. Once committed, take action fast.
Scheduled depth: Block time for uninterrupted work and guard it like revenue.
Courageous feedback & conversations: Speak truth with care, always.
Work Recovery™ as strategy: Build in rest, reflection, and small pauses. Regulated leaders make better decisions and better art.
To get started, ask yourself where in my work am I choosing speed at significant cost to the gains from going deep on the issue or project?
Extra Credit Power Play: Pick One Priority → In Essentialism, Greg McKeown reminds us that “priority” originally meant the one thing: the single, most important task or purpose. The word stayed singular for hundreds of years. Only in the 1900s did we start saying priorities, as if we could multiply what matters most 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Depth begins when we return PRIORITY to its original form.
Choose one true priority for this season (not fifteen!). Make everything else serve it.
That’s elevated leadership through depth.
— Bree
P.S. If this year felt like an undesired gut punch to your goals, I'm working on a LIVE workshop Your 2026 Soul Goal Reset to help you identify the most aligned soul goals for 2026. Thank goodness 2025 is almost in the rearview because I'm a different person than NYE 2024 me 😂 If you want to uncover your own aligned, soul goals, join the Soul Goal Session waitlist here to hold your spot for this free Executive Unschool workshop.
This Week's Did You Know? Are employers paying for my hot flashes now…
Employers offering menopause benefits jumped from 15% in 2023 to 25% in 2025, reflecting a growing recognition of women’s real work experiences. As conversations around wellbeing become more open, menopause support is emerging as a key benefit. Symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, and insomnia can significantly affect wellbeing, productivity, and retention—and some employers are finally getting smarter about addressing them.
Source: Wall Street Journal, Support During Menopause is Latest Workplace Perk
Links & Resources We Love Right Now
A listen: Beverly Smith and Rhonda Parmer were two incredible women who joined me as a guest on my podcast How Good Can It Get. Beverly is an executive recruiter with insights on everything from resumes to career building. And Rhonda is a leadership coach who shares her Blocks, Clocks, & Socks time management tool and I'll never forget it now :)
A learn: Despite social media's attempt to keep us connected, research still shows that we can only handle 150 friends at any given time. While our social skills have improved, we're still not that good to have more friends. Guess quality over quantity works for friendships, too!
A shoutout: The book Straight-Line Leadership by Dusan Djukich is a gem filled with insights that feel like the harshest but most helpful gut punches I forgot I needed.
Something I love: A dream coming true 😎 More exciting news about a TEDx gig coming soon…it's ultimate How Good Can It Get?!
