Michelangelo Principle How Busy Leaders

List of Figures
Introduction
Part 1 Thinking Differently
Chapter 1 The Michelangelo Principle
Chapter 2 Strategic Clarity
Chapter 3 Deep Impact
Chapter 4 Extraordinary Leadership
Chapter 5 Powerful Decisions
Chapter 6 Time Bandits
Chapter 7 Speed Traps
Chapter 8 Activating Teams
Chapter 9 Radical Resilience
Chapter 10 Your Legacy
Epilogue: The Art of Subtraction
Part 2 Acting Differently
About the Author
Recommended Readings
Index
Table of Contents
About the Author
Paul Rulkens is a global expert in high-performance leadership. He has helped Fortune 500 companies, including McKinsey, Siemens, 
Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz, and Uber, achieve breakthrough results by doing less. 
A sought-after speaker, his TED talk Why the Majority Is Always Wrong has garnered over 6 million views. As a senior fellow at The 
Conference Board, Paul equips executives with proven strategies to accelerate growth and build high-performance organizations.

Book Description
Success in leadership often becomes its own trap. The better you perform, the more complexity, noise, and demands pile 
onto your plate. But what if the key to extraordinary results isn’t doing more, but removing what doesn’t matter?
The Michelangelo Principle: How Busy Leaders Accomplish More by Doing Less challenges you to rethink leadership. Like 
Michelangelo carving David, true mastery lies not in adding, but in chiseling away the unnecessary to reveal your full 
potential.
This book is designed for Corporate Olympians—high-performing leaders caught in the paradox of success. With fresh 
perspectives, innovative concepts, and actionable tools, you’ll learn to sidestep inefficiencies, eliminate distractions, and 
amplify your leadership impact.
• Break Free from Leadership Traps—Avoid time-wasters, zombie projects, and the illusion of competence.
• Build Resilience—Shift from rigidity to adaptability with systems that thrive in uncertainty.
• Activate Your Team—Transform committees into high-performance teams that own results.
• Leave a Legacy—Stop leaving trails of activity and start building systems that outlast you