I Hired a Therapist Instead of a Consultant. My Business Tripled

By the time you reach the last sentence of this article, if you feel like cancelling your next strategy call; I have successfully conveyed my message.

I have been a Chief Operating Officer for over a decade now. The title comes with muscle memory: growth charts, decision matrices, fire-fighting, and not to mention, the 4 AM Club. I was robotically efficient in optimizing, fixing, forecasting and scaling; essentially, what we are paid for.

But two years ago, what I did, to everyone’s surprise changed everything. Something no business coach, board member or peer group would typically suggest. Let’s just say I followed my instinct, and- ‘hired a therapist instead of a consultant’

Revenue spiked, but most important, the relationship I had with my work, my team and myself, were never better.

How it happened? How I prompted to hire a therapist? Answer is simple, one wise man once said that “the roads less travelled are often the roads best travelled”.

The Real Bottleneck Wasn’t on the Organisational Chart

We were doing ‘fine’, not struggling, at least on papers, not thriving as well. Growth was flat for three consecutive quarters. My team was efficient, highly skilled. Path ahead was ambitious, but clear. Yet, something was missing.

We were doing everything conventionally ‘right’ but looking at where we were it never really felt hat way.

I had already burnt through two management consultants in the span of eight months. They did a great job providing polished reports and clever framework. Their ideas were smart, a well drafted plan with clear KPIs that never really stuck. Nothing shifted.

One Friday evening I skipped drinks and slouched in my chair, staring at the whiteboard full of KPIs. I felt nothing, honestly. No fire. No fear. No clarity. Just empty words. That’s when it hit. I knew we needed a reset, not on business level, but on human level precisely.

Therapy is Not Weakness. It’s Strategic Self-Awareness

I remembered in my twenties I opted for therapy once to deal with the anxieties of young age. But this time I wanted was much deeper. Something on the level once inner call and ambitions.

It has to be more than just a pep talk or a performance checklist. I needed a real guidance. Ability to cultivate something from within which can reflect on business as well. I wanted someone to help me figure out ‘why, despite being “successful,” I felt emotionally bankrupt’.

I met a therapist who specialise in leadership burnout and inner narrative. In our first session she asked, “When did you start believing that you had to carry it all alone?”

That stirred something from within. My every action was questioned in that very instance while there was no clear answer. Because I didn’t know, why. I just did.

I Was Operating from Trauma, Not Strategy

I work towards untangling the patterns I had never questioned:

1. My inability to delegate as I never trusted enough. It was more about control and fear of irrelevance.

2. My obsession for productivity was rooted in past traumas, not business urgency.

3. My tendency to avoid conflict had created a culture of silence among my leadership team.

We weren’t plateauing because of market shifts.

We were plateauing because I was leading from survival, not strategy.

Insight: Your Inner Script Becomes Company Culture

Here is something no business book will tell you:

“The most powerful force in any organization is the unconscious narrative of the leader.”

While my script was:

Be indispensable or be invisible

People leave when you’re honest.

Stillness is laziness.

I never realised I was glorifying a mind set and culture of burnout and anxiety within the team.

The stepping stone towards the change was inner-awareness, not external restructuring.

The ROI of Inner Work (Yes, I Measured It)

In 9 months of therapy, I made sure to pen down every single learning, every shift I experienced within myself because I had started to understand that I am not alone in this:

Internal Shifts

• I built an emotional muscle and stopped micromanaging.

• I started having uncomfortable conversations without spiralling.

• I understood the value of stillness, practised it and ideas started to emerge.

Team

• We restructured decision-making to be more bottom-up.

• Our leadership meetings moved from performative updates to honest debates.

• Morale surged when people felt like partners not pawns, they turned more responsible.

Business

• Attrition dropped by 40%.

• Our Net Promoter Score improved by 18 points.

• And revenue, tripled within the following year.

This significant growth was achieved not because we were finally running a better company. Things improved from within not through any external campaign.

What a Therapist Gave Me That Consultants Never Could

1. Depth over tactics

Consultants generally work with a reactive approach, to fix symptoms but a real healer would diagnose the problem and work on the root cause. My therapist helped me locate the root cause which was disconnection from- self, team and purpose.

2. Identity work

My therapist asked the right questions:

“What part of you are you trying to prove wrong every time you open your inbox?”

“What version of ‘success’ are you chasing—and who defined it for you?”

3. Emotional fluency

I learned how to sit with discomfort instead of intellectualizing it. I learned how to lead with vulnerability without leaking insecurity.

No, It’s Not Therapy Instead of Strategy. It’s Strategy Through Therapy.

Before people start taking me wrong, I would like to clarify that I still work with a coach. I discuss my endeavors with consultants and attend workshops. But now, I view my inner landscape as the most critical part of my executive toolkit. I spend as much time understanding my nervous system as I do reading quarterly reports.

Because a dysregulated leader makes chaotic decisions.

Because emotional clarity scales better than operational clarity.

Because a thriving business is a by-product of a thriving mind.

A Final Word to Every Leader Hiding Behind PowerPoint Decks

You may perform everything correct by the books, constantly shift organisational charts, launching new initiatives and hiring the best consultant; still if you feel something is off- understand that you need to look ‘inwards’ not ‘outwards’. We have started to take our personal sanity more seriously these days and don’t shy from taking professional help for that. But fail to understand that business has a soul of its own, that is made of its people. While we do everything possible externally to achieve our most ambitious goal, the real vision is fulfilled only when its people work within themselves.

Hire a therapist. Not because you’re broken, but because you’re ready to stop leading from your wounds.