665 | You Don’t Need More Hustle — You Need More Clarity

Your team might be exhausted from hustle, but are they actually moving the needle?

50 calls, zero conversations, 10 meetings, no decisions. The problem isn't effort. It's clarity that is coming up next.

Welcome to The Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.

If you're a leader who feels like your team is always busy but rarely advancing, then this episode is for you.

So we're challenging hustle culture, and if you've been with me any decent amount of time, you know that that is a culture that I tend to challenge.

We're going to hit that today, and we're going to be exposing the real cost of confusing activity with achievement. You'll walk away with a new lens for evaluating progress, and you'll also have some practical tools for driving outcomes that matter.

Now, I can tell you we have had many times where leaders have come to us and said, man, I know my team is doing a phenomenal job. I mean, they are busting it.

They're always busy. They're working all kinds on all kinds of stuff. And as we sit down and go through the progress or the achievements or, you know, how well the business is doing, what we tend to find.

And this is with a ton of companies, and this is something that we have had to fight for, you know, for decades. I've made sure we don't get stuck in the weeds on stuff.

But we call it the shotgun approach. You will have people that are going in many different directions, busting it like crazy, being busy, even having some achievement. But we, as a company are not going the way we should.

We are not achieving like we should. And that is what we are talking about today. So here's kind of what we're diving into.

We are jumping into why hustle culture is costing you more than it's giving you. Also, how to identify when activity is masking a lack of strategy. That's a big one.

The core metric every team should define before starting work, as well as a practical framework to shift from movement to meaningful progress.

Hustle Isn’t the Problem—Confusion Is (00:02:30)

So let's get into it. First thing, hustle isn't the problem. Confusion is. So let's start with why hustle is often a symptom, not the root issue. Now, I will just give you my.

Hopefully, I'm not going to go on a big rant here.

Uh, but I will tell you that one of my biggest issues with this hustle culture that came out by people who had already been decently successful or colossally successful.

And then started selling this message that it's just about the hustle and you just gotta hustle harder, you gotta hustle more, you just gotta go, go, go, go, go.

And it create-- I watched for a long time.

I watched people literally spend just insane numbers of hours every day trying to create something, trying to make something happen while losing their family, while losing relationships, while stressed out, losing their physical health, losing their mental health.

I've seen a lot of it. The percentage of people that have followed the hustle culture and have made it while still being successful in life.

In other words, what I mean is a, you know, a successful relationship with God, with your wife, your, your husband, your kids and so on, that percentage, in my experience, is almost nil.

I mean, it's incredibly low. I know a couple of people out of tons that I've seen. Because the hustle culture doesn't do a great job of teaching what to do to be successful.

It teaches run, run, run, run, run. Go do this. You got more time. You know, you should be getting up at 4 o' clock in the morning, going to bed at midnight. You know, you need to pour your time into this, this, this, this, this, this, this.

So many different things that you need to pour yourself into. You need to put money behind this, you put money behind that, all of these things.

And nobody's actually teaching what a success looks like because they don't know. They don't know what you're doing specifically. They're not walking through your process.

They don't teach what success is when it comes to life as a whole. Do you still have a successful marriage?

How are your kids actually doing? Do you even remember their names? These are the things that, for me, I get totally frustrated with when it comes to the hustle culture.

That is separate from what you've heard me say a bajillion times. When the ox is in the ditch, get the ox out of the ditch. No matter what it takes. Make it happen, get out there, bust it.

Work hours that you have to work, whatever it is, get the ox out of the ditch, fix the problem, solve the problem, move the ball down the line.

But don't make that a lifestyle. Because when it becomes a lifestyle, then that is your life. Think about it. If it's a lifestyle, then it becomes your life.

There's nothing wrong with trying to get a new product off the ground. There's nothing wrong with, you know, spending time trying to get a new business started.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's this concept that you have to run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run.

And by running, you're going to become successful. I just. I have more important things to do. I actually like to do successful things and make sure that I'm going to be successful.

I like to make smart decisions, hire smart people, do the things that are necessary that bring success about. So there's my little rant for you. Does that mean that Chris Licurdo is anti work? Oh, my gosh.

I'm one of the hardest workers you're gonna find. I bust my butt. I have busted my butt since I was a teenager. I've been, well, maybe not legally working at the age that I started, but we won't get into that. But I've been working for what, four decades?

No, over four decades now. God. Well, that's a. That'll age you really quickly when you say that out loud. I've been working a very long time, and I've always busted my butt.

I have no problem with that. I have a problem with a culture that, in my mind, is twisted. So let's get into this piece. If your team is putting an hour, staying late, and still not hitting goals, then you don't have a work ethic issue.

They're obviously there, they're obviously working, they're obviously doing stuff, and they're probably like, man, I am busting my butt. You probably have a clarity issue.

Stop rewarding busyness. I have a team that accomplishes a ton. Why? And do they work all crazy long hours? Nope. Sure don't. We do from time to time, we have certain events that will go into the evening.

We have certain things that we do that will, you know, we'll spend more hours on a regular day, but for the most part, my team works a regular day. Oh, Chris, Entrepreneurs are always working like crazy.

Yep, I do. But I will tell you, I have things that are way more important than being busy. I have a family, have, you know, more important people in my life that I want to be around.

There's stuff that I want to accomplish other than always just being busy. So stop rewarding busyness and start asking, did what this team is doing move us closer to the desired outcome?

In fact, ask yourself this question. Do you even know what the desired outcome is? Do you have a vision of where you're headed? Do you have a vision of an outcome?

Do you have a destination you're headed to? And is there a strategy that actually gets you there? Are There goals along the way, metrics are there, you know, milestones. Do you have a plan of how your entire team is moving in the same laser focused direction?

So think about that for a second. Do you have an outcome that everybody on your team or everybody in your company is pointing toward? If you do not have that, and I will say most businesses think they do and then discover they really have nothing.

You know, they, they wrote down some goals, put them in a drawer, and that's pretty much it. I'm talking about a clear defined, here's where we're headed, here's how we're going to get there.

Broken down into quarters, months, weeks, even days on things that we need to do. If you don't have that, and listen, we would be glad to help you get there because if you don't have that, you are probably wasting an incredible amount of your resources.

Why? Because a lack of clarity confused teams will default to what's easy to measure like number of calls instead of what matters like sales converted, number of tasks I did, number of hours I worked.

Instead of did it actually get us closer to the goal, the outcome that we're expecting? So if clarity isn't driving the hustle, the hustle won't deliver results.

So you're not hearing me say don't hustle. What you're hearing me say is you may be absolutely wasting your time, your energy, your team's energy, and most likely most of your resources on a hustle that's not getting you somewhere.

Activity Metrics ≠ Success Metrics (00:10:32)

Number two, activity metrics don't necessarily equal success metrics.

So this is where most teams kind of get it wrong. They measure motion and not progress. So yourself, your team may be celebrating hitting 100. Follow up emails and yet nobody replied.

Well, then what did they actually accomplish? Well, we got, we set a goal of 100 and we got there. And what did it result in? Well, nothing yet. Okay, did we stop at 25 and ask how is it going?

Right now we got to our goal of 100, but when did we evaluate anything? Did we spend any time discussing what the success metrics should be before the work starts?

Did we talk about conversion completion impact, anything? Well, no, we just said, we just said we wanted to hit 100. Okay, well, yay, you did it. Now what are you going to do? Well, we're going to shoot for another hundred.

I suggest that you don't. I hope that you actually back up and evaluate the living daylights out of the effort that was put in. In fact, don't set a goal and wait 'til you reach the goal.

Before you evaluate, we should be looking at this process. How are we doing? Are we having an impact? Are we actually reaching anybody?

Did anybody even open our emails? All of the stuff that tells you whether or not you're making an impact should be followed up on consistently so that you know what to do.

Because what if you send out 25 and the truth is you're not doing squats? Should we send out another 75? No. What should we do? We should stop. We should evaluate.

What do we need to change? But we set a goal, Chris. And, folks, this is where leaders really struggle. A lot of leaders have a hard time stopping in the middle of a goal. I get it. I've been there myself.

But I will tell you, I am not there and haven't been there for a very long time. If the goal that I've set is not accomplishing what I want and we're not seeing results, it doesn't matter.

The goal is terrible. It's the wrong goal. Change it out. Do something different. Shift as fast as you can. Shift your KPIs from how much we did to what changed because we did it.

You don't need more effort. You need smarter scoreboards. You don't need more hustle. Again, not complaining about hustling.

As long as you're accomplishing something, do not waste your life or your team's life going at their stuff that doesn't matter. Make sure they're hitting the things that actually does.

Clarity Transforms Culture (00:13:36)

Number three, clarity transforms culture. So let's talk about what happens when you start leading with clarity. Now, a team that knows the exact results they're driving toward becomes confident.

They become engaged. They become focused. It is not difficult for that team to achieve because they have clarity on what they're supposed to do.

Every day, every hour, every month, they understand what winning looks like and they go after it. That, folks, is powerful. That is a team that's going to accomplish clarity.

That builds trust. So your team stops second guessing and they just continue to produce. There is nothing greater than that.

I don't. I don't worry about whether or not my team is producing because I literally get to see the results on a continuous basis.

So if you're saying, I know many leaders that have people like, well, how's that person doing? And they're like, oh, they're great. They're fantastic.

Only to find out that person's not really doing anything because they don't have leaders that are checking the progress. That's a must.

Are they doing something Are they accomplishing something? What is it that they're accomplishing? Is it benefiting us? What is the goal here?

So make sure that outcomes are absolutely clear. Put metrics to it, as well as put accountability to it.

Make sure that your leaders are able to actually tell you exactly what somebody has accomplished. If they cannot, why are they there? Why are they called a leader?

Why do you have them in that role? If your leaders can't tell you what each team member is accomplishing, you have a problem.

So clarity doesn't slow hustle. It does not slow hustle. It sharpens it into impact, which is what you're really looking for.

Use the “Why Are We Doing This?” Filter (00:15:47)

Number four, use the "Why Are We Doing This" filter.

So here's a simple tool to cut wasted effort, and it's by using what we call the clarity question.

So if you've ever approved a project just because while we've always done it, then this one is for you, and that's everybody, everybody listening has fallen into the well, we've always done it trap. Right?

That's been something that we've all experienced. And so this is important for us to make sure that before we go after any initiative that we ask, why are we doing this? And that we ask, what results should it create?

So if you do not have clarity, and I will tell you, I have been a part of this many times in my decades of leadership and business and leading leaders and leading entrepreneurs.

Where good ideas are what people go after. That is a good idea. We should do that. Instead of what does the entire thing look like? What is it going to accomplish? How are we going to get there?

Every bit of perspective to understand how to make it happen is missing. But it's a good idea and people really like it. I think we should do that. I think we should make that happen.

And then we go off to make that thing happen, and a whole ton of people are busy, but we're really not accomplishing the thing that we set out to do in the first place.

Why? Because what are we lacking? Clarity.

We are not asking the right questions. Why are we doing this in the first place?

And I will tell you, I just spent a good amount of time leading a bunch of leaders and business owners at our retreat, talking about making sure that we actually run this stuff through the filter of our mission as well.

So your mission for me, my-- My definition of your mission is that it's your purpose for existence.

So whether it's your business, whether it's your marriage, no matter what it is, that it's your purpose for existence. So that mission should be in place to make sure that you're doing the right things.

If you, if you are not taking every goal, every plan, every project, every initiative and running it through your mission and asking the question, does it even align?

If you're not doing that, then you're probably working on some things that you should not be doing. You probably have some stuff that is using resources that could be focused on other stuff.

Because it was a good idea, it sounded like a good idea, somebody mentioned it, we all agreed we should do that and we never ran it through our mission. Guys, start there. Start with the mission.

Start asking yourself the question, does this align with what the purpose of our business is? If it does not, then why are we doing it? Or why are we even considering to do it?

So that's the first place you start. And once you get there, if you decide that it actually does align with your mission and it falls in line with your purpose, then ask the question, what should the results be?

What kind of results should it create? That's the important thing we're looking for after we've decided that it's something we should be focusing on, is what should the outcome be?

Because if you create it and there is no great outcome, there isn't anything that moves the needle, there isn't anything that makes the business better, there isn't anything that makes you more money, creates more opportunity, is a loss leader for something.

Then once again, we have to go back to the first question, why are we doing this? Next thing you need to do is you need to teach your team to self filter their to dos through the lens of the impact.

Now this is a much bigger process and we do this through StratPlan. We do this through a lot of our leadership stuff to help them. But this is a 30 minute podcast, so I'm going to tell you the quick down and dirty on this.

Make sure that your team is absolutely clear on what the impact is that you're trying to accomplish with this thing that we're doing, this project, this product rollout, this service rollout, whatever it is.

And make sure that as they go through their to do's, what are the tasks that they are going to do to accomplish this? What are the goals that they should be moving toward. All of that information, it has to be filtered through the lens of the impact.

Now what we do through something like StratPlan is we actually align the tasks with the StratPlan, the the strategy that we've put out and everybody who's involved actually knows I'm doing these things to get this thing done.

This is the direction we're heading in and this is the time on top of the things that they're already working on, they have clarity on what they're working on is helping to achieve.

And here's these new things that we're going to do to make this happen, right? So you've got to make sure that your team is kind of self filtering. Help them to understand what you're doing today.

Because you know, your team, just like you probably get stuck from time to time in doing the things that are less difficult, the things that seem urgent and the things that seem like they should be focused on, but it's keeping them away from the tougher things that they have to work on.

You know that they do that, right?

You know, you do that, right? We've all done it. We've all had that day where it's like, ah, I don't want to tackle that big thing over there.

I'm going to do these 75 emails that just don't matter, right? So help them to focus on getting the right stuff done.

Help them to focus on, you know, looking at that impact and looking at their role and asking, what are the things that I should be doing to hit that goal, that milestone, whatever it is, the metric.

So when, why, as I do my air quotes, lead your team's work results are absolutely going to follow.

Reflection (00:21:53)

So things I want you to reflect on. The lie of hustle culture is that more effort equals more results.

But without clarity, effort burns time and morale and resources and, you know, physical exertion, you will find that you're stressed out more, struggling more, you know, pounding more coffee, sugar, whatever it is, because that's what it does, it just wears you down.

But when leaders get clear on purpose and outcomes, everything changes. You get faster wins, you get less waste, and you get healthier teams. Which, for the love, is what you're looking for. And that is what is important.

Action Items (00:22:34)

So action items that you can do right now.

First off, audit your team's top three weekly activities. Are they creating real results?

Second thing, clarify one key success metric for your most important initiative.

Whatever. Just one. You don't, don't even do tons, just get one and ask yourself, are we moving toward this? Are we measuring success by this?

Number three, ask your team, why are we doing this? At the start of every major task this week, I want you to do this this week, every major task, why are we doing this? And see what their answer is.

And then evaluate what you know, their answer compared to why you think we're doing this?

Do they even really know?

Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event (00:23:22)

So if this episode hit home, it's time to get around other growth minded leaders and go deeper at the Next-Level Leadership LIVE Event 2026.

We'll show you exactly how to break the motion trap and lead with clarity and build teams that produce real results. Now, early bird pricing is open right now and it's $200 off, but that won't last.

So go to chrislocurto.com/liveevents and get your seat today. That's chrislocurto.com/liveevents. All one word live events and get your seats.

We look forward to seeing you there, folks. That's all the time we have for today.

I hope this has helped you immensely. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life and join us on the next episode.