Post by Melisa Buie, PhD

"Dodo, I just want to be with my thoughts." A 4-year-old just taught her father about subtraction. And he had already written the book on it. Leidy Klotz was driving home from preschool, chatting with his daughter Josie the way you're "supposed to do" with kids. She interrupted him: "Dodo," her name for him, "I just want to be with my thoughts." At four years old, she already knew what she wanted and asked for it with clarity most adults never find. Years later, that same clarity defines Leidy's life in a way he never imagined. When Josie passed away, the loss became his most profound crucible moment, the kind that strips away everything that doesn't matter and crystallizes what does. "I still care deeply about being kind to people but I'm far less worried about making them comfortable," he says now. "How can we make the most of the time that we have?" This is the man who went from professional soccer player to groundbreaking professor at UVA, who proved through Nature published research that humans systematically overlook subtraction as a solution, who turned consecutive 4-and-12 seasons into a consecutive championships by learning that the margin between failure and success is often razor-thin. His mission: deliver "new, true, and important ideas" to the world. He's doing it through his bestselling books, Subtract and In a Good Place, through speaking to organizations, and through the thousands of students he’s taught, including 75%+ of his PhD students from underrepresented groups who are now faculty at Virginia Tech, Cornell, and beyond. But it all comes back to what Josie knew at four: sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is remove what doesn't serve you. Stop the meetings that don't need to happen. Cut the noise that drowns out thought. Make space for what matters. That's not deprivation. That's leadership. Read the full article to discover how Leidy Klotz turned loss into legacy and why subtraction might be the most underused tool in your leadership arsenal. And follow Leidy Klotz on LinkedIn to learn how less can become more.