Leadership Is A Long Game: Six Lessons That Only Time (And Mistakes) Teach You

Great leadership is about making the people, presence, and profits of a company better than when you found them. It's as simple as that.  

Clarity of vision and purposeful daily action, built on solid values, create a continuous state of momentum toward desired outcomes—and that is what makes exceptional leadership stand out from the rest.  

What I have seen over 15+ years working with leaders at the highest level is that truly great leaders are rare. Here, I will share six lessons that I have learned on my own personal leadership journey, as well as lessons I’ve both taught and learned from my client base across five continents.  

Lesson 1  

The important law of exceptional leadership I teach to all team leaders—and especially in senior management—is to lead yourself first. There are many people with the leadership titles, but few have the intention and relentlessness to continue their ascension into the rare air of exceptional leadership. Exceptional leadership begins with the leader’s personal intention and willingness to look in the mirror before looking out to who's in front of him or her. 

I have often said that many people today work harder on their jobs than they do on themselves—there is simply so much distraction around us in our modern world that it takes real intention and commitment to work on yourself as much or even more than you work on your job. Working on yourself, i.e. your mindset, your skills, and your strategies, should be “priority one” each and every year for yourself, the leader, and for your teams.  

Key development areas that leaders should focus on include your personal identity, your ability to communicate and influence, your calendar, and task management to name just a few. Investing in developing mindset and skills is the highest leverage activity that a leader can do.  

Lesson 2 

Exceptional leaders know success loves speed. Patience on the journey is always important, and hurrying is not productive, but at the same time, speed is often followed by success. Urgency creates momentum, and momentum can completely turn a year around for your business. 

I am a big believer in short bursts of focused action—what I call "seasons.” For example, after summer, all my high-performers will begin a 90-day season from September to November. This will capitalize on a generally favorable business season across the board, and position us to finish the year strong, while, at the same time, prepare for your transition into 2026, heading into January in momentum, versus trying to get out of inertia. 

Focused, massive, and almost unsociable levels of action over a short period of time will produce better results than slow and steady, lukewarm daily behavior. Working in a finely tuned season with massive accountability will help a leader transcend their old habits, and search for new, more leveraged ways to get things done. The daily distractions that unwillingly affect our daily focus are the biggest killers of consistent performance, and a 90-day season removes those distractions completely. After a powerful season, you then replenish your energy, shift gears slightly, and head into the next phase. 

Lesson 3 

Exceptional leadership is visionary. Visionaries say yes first and figure it out later. Visionaries aim high and say yes before all the evidence is there. They're not reckless—they just know what they're capable of. I coach all my executive clients to be vision-led, not reality-bound. Visionary leadership is about creating urgency again, asking better questions, seeking clarity, and acting from certainty. Visionary leaders ask better questions and make less conclusions so they are always receiving insights that others can't because they have already closed the door and stopped seeking. 

This ability to stay curious and set visionary targets is what allows 10-year targets to be achieved in less than five years. Visionary leaders create visionary cultures with values and character at the center, and therefore can be a major changemaker within any organization. People want to follow visionaries.  

Lesson 4 

Let demonstration do your talking. If you are a leader who wants to make a massive impact in your industry and truly move the needle for your brand and business, your presence and power must precede you, and that happens when you become someone who does what they say they will do. When you are known as a doer, the right people will join you and stay with you. Talk is cheap, but consistent doing creates certainty, and certainty is what moves the needle.  

When you are a leader who does what they say they will do, people can now buy into the vision and show up every day to deliver on the mission with you. People want to follow a leader who is visionary, as we said, but also reliable. This comes down to character. My definition of character in a relationship—either personal or professional—is your ability and willingness to execute on the vision and values you say you have.

Lesson 5 

The biggest mistake leaders make is thinking they have time, and worse, thinking time is money. Time is infinitely more valuable than money. When you spend a day, you have one day less to spend—when you spend money, you can make it a thousand times more.  

Leaders must be willing to buy back their time by investing in solutions to do the tasks that move the needle the most. A high-level leader and high performer have to spend their time on the 5 percent of tasks that drive results, and the remaining 95 percent must be either delegated or eliminated. Wasting time doing a "bit of everything" can be a costly mistake. It's the same for the owners and founders who turn into daily operators and lose their leverage. 

Buy back your time, so that you can focus on what truly gets the best results. Invest in developing the mindset and skills to close the gap from what you know to what you don't yet know, and from what you do to what you're not yet doing. This will move you to where you want to be faster than anything else. 

Lesson 6 

Waiting is not a strategy, and casualness leads to casualties. What are the casualties? The death of the deal, the death of the culture, the death of the momentum and much more.  

Some of the biggest issues I see in companies is the illusion of "we have time.” Comments like "come back to me in January,” or "come back to me in September" are examples of being too casual. This is not a competitive mindset. Business is about winning market share, and whether we like it or not, it’s a fiercely competitive pursuit. 

Urgency is your friend. Leverage is your friend. Speaking to the client today is better than tomorrow. Speaking to the team is better this week or this month then next month. Investing in the leaders and the team’s mindset and skills is critical now not later. Waiting is not a strategy.  

About The Author 

Aidan O’Brien is a globally respected strategic advisor, executive mentor, and keynote speaker who has delivered transformational work to nearly one million people globally, including sales teams in the UAE, generating over EUR50 million annually, and worked with Fortune 500 companies, billion-dollar direct sales firms, and high-growth startups across five continents.