Why "Hell Yeah" beats perfect planning

Here's what 25 years of leadership taught me:

The leaders who try to figure everything out before they start are the ones who never start at all.

I learned this during my D1 soccer career. I wanted every play mapped out, every scenario planned. Coach used to say, "Giganti, stop thinking so much and just play the game."

At CCC, I was hitting my numbers but suffocating under the weight of trying to have every answer predetermined.

Then came the moment that changed everything.

I knew I was ready to leave CCC to chase this mission of impact. But here's what I didn't have: a perfect business plan, guaranteed income, or all the answers about how this would unfold.

What I did have was clarity on service and impact. I knew that would drive everything else.

Most high performers are stuck in perfection mode instead of experimentation mode. I had to choose to wait for certainty or lean into the unknown and trust the work and process.

I chose to experiment with intention.

Here's the thing. I still feel the uncertainty. Every day. But I've learned to lean into it instead of aiming for perfection.

Take our leadership assessment work as a perfect example. I partnered with Jim Hunter and his team at PeopleBest to develop a "With Intention" lens that pairs with their incredible data.

We've had 40 people test it so far. The conversations have been absolutely fruitful. But it's not perfect. We're still in the lab, tinkering with how to tune the framework so it creates the deepest impact for teams.

Recently, we added an interim Insight report before the 1:1 debrief. This gives assessment takers just enough value without overwhelming them and tees up a deeper conversation. We're adjusting as we go.

The result? Teams are now signing up to do this work at scale. Sports teams and business teams who want a lens into how they're wired and how to become truly heart-connected teams.

This is the deeper work I'm excited about. And it's happening because we chose experimentation over perfection.

Your people don't need you to be perfect. They need you to be intentional.

They don't need you to have all the answers. They need you to be committed to finding the right answers together.

The magic happens in the iteration, not the perfection.

What's one "hell yeah" opportunity you've been avoiding because you don't have it all figured out?

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And sometimes the most important part is simply starting.

Speaking of frameworks. If you're curious about the leadership assessment work we're developing with PeopleBest, I'd love to share how teams are using this to create deeper connections and breakthrough performance.

P.S. That image you'll see below perfectly captures this: On the left, trying everything without intention. On the right, systematic experimentation that creates breakthrough. The difference isn't perfection. It's purpose.