The Ryan Leak Podcast - Removing Irritants

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

What if growth is less about adding more… and more about removing what frustrates people?In this episode, Ryan shares a powerful leadership principle from Dr. Nido Qubein, president of High Point University. While many private colleges have struggled or even closed in recent years, High Point has grown enrollment and built a waiting list of thousands. One of the hallmarks behind that success? A simple commitment to removing irritants.From building an arcade on campus when students kept leaving on weekends, to paving a walkway along the path students were already taking, this episode explores how small friction points quietly drain energy, morale, and momentum.Whether you lead a company, a team, a family, or just yourself, this conversation will challenge you to ask one practical question: What is the most annoying thing people around me deal with, and how can I remove it?Sometimes the greatest leadership move is not adding something extraordinary. It is eliminating something ordinary that has been irritating people for years.

What's going on, my friends? Welcome back to the Ryan League podcast where we love to keep things short and sweet for you each and every week. We always want each episode to just add value to your life, leadership relationships, and today is no exception. Today's episode is entitled Removing irritants. Removing irritants. There is a leadership principle that I think is so simple. You're going to think to yourself, Ryan, everybody knows this, right? It feels like it's common sense. Here's what I've learned. Common sense is not all that common. And that leadership principle that we're going to talk about today does not require a rebrand. It does not require a capital campaign or a consultant. It requires a high level of awareness and a high level of you just being willing to care about really,

really small things. And it's about removing irritants. I learned it from a guy by the name of Dr. Nito Quabain. He is the president of High Point University. And he leads with this mantra of removing irritants. And it just might be one of the. most practical leadership frameworks. I've seen an action in a very, very long time. And just to give you context for what's happening in the higher education space, data will tell you that when you begin to

look at private, nonprofit colleges in the United States, they're either closing their doors or hanging on by a threat. In fact, I went to a small Christian college. And when I look up, even the teams in colleges that I played against in college, I want to say, last time I checked, there was 13 of them that no longer exist. Like they've completely shut down their doors. However, High Point University, ironically, has a waiting list of thousands. And the culture is absolutely remarkable. I had an opportunity to visit their campus last year and was thoroughly impressed.

and really not just impressed with the campus, I was really impressed with Dr. Nito Cobain's leadership and had the opportunity with a small group of people to spend some time with him. And he just started sharing some stories about this consistent commitment to removing irritants. He even told us a story about how it came to his attention that students kept leaving the campus on the weekend

to go to an arcade. So he thought, well, let's build them one. Yeah, that's an inconvenience for them to have to, you know, leave the campus and, you know, figure out ways to get over there and catch rides. Or he goes, well, what if they could just go downstairs? What if they could just walk out of their dorm room and have fun here? He removed and neared him. He also tells a story where he was standing in his office and his office overlooks the campus.

And he saw a student going from one building to another. Now, there was a sidewalk where they would kind of walk around the hill and go over to the next building. But he noticed that students kept walking over the hill to get to the next building because it was the most natural path to get there. And so the next day, Dr. Corvane had pavers. Yeah, he had a construction crew out there making a way, paving away to make it easier for students to get from one building to another. What's he doing? He's removing irritants. He's asking the question, what's the most annoying thing that parents have to deal with?

What's the most annoying thing that students have to do with? And how can we remove those irritants? My friends, it's not a flashy idea. It's not a marketing campaign. What it is is it's paying attention to friction and eliminating it. And most leaders, most people I would add, are wired to act. add, yeah, come up with more stuff, add more programming, more oversight, more initiatives, more structure.

But I believe growth is often less about addition and more about subtraction. It's about asking a simple question, what is the most annoying thing that our people deal with every day and how can we remove it? And here's what you and I both know. Every single organization has irritant. The meeting that should have been an email. the email that should have been a conversation, the five layers of approval that make decision-making painfully slow,

the expense report that takes longer to file than the expense itself, outdated software that everyone complains about, but nobody fixes, and don't even get me started on the automated phone system that makes you press seven buttons before you ever even talk to a human. Listen, the other day, I had a Nike order that was messed up, And so I called Nike's customer service line, and I was expecting an automated system, which, you know, just drives me up the wall. This isn't about my irritants, but I'm just giving you a story.

All right. And when you call Nike, here's what happens. They say, thanks for calling. To make sure we're always on our game, we record our calls. One of our athletes will be right with you. What did you just say? One of your athletes will be right with me? Is LeBron coming on the call?

Like, I'm not annoyed. I'm inspired. What is about to happen? Somebody in that organization is asking the question, hey man, what's annoying to people? And like, how can we make it better? How can we remove an irritant for these people? I mean, the reality is it doesn't matter what the friction is in your organization. It's going to compound in some way, shape, or form. But so does relief. Relief. relief also compounds. Yeah, when an irritant is removed, guess what happened?

People talk about it. Think about this, even in your own personal life. Most of the stress that you have doesn't come from one giant catastrophic event. It comes from what? Small, reoccurring annoyances. Lost keys, the bill you forgot to pay, the login that never works. I can't remember my passwords to save my life. Even in the password, it's like, this password no longer, you're like, but I saved it and how come it's not, like, it's just, it's like what's happening?

Clutter that slowly takes over your desk. None of it's dramatic, but a low key just drained energy. So I think this idea of removing irritant, while it's not glamorous, I do think it's transformational. I mean, you just, I mean, obviously you think about your job, just what would it look like for you to just shorten meetings and give people their time back? Like, how many meetings have we had that were 60 minutes that could have been 20? How many three-hour meetings have we had that could have been an email? Like, remove the irritant. I mean, you just think about, like, you think about approval processes and what we would call corporate red tape.

Like, what if you just remove the irritant and made the approval process just a little more simple? I mean, going back to your personal life, I mean, you just, you just, you think about removing irritants there like you know if it's lost keys like what if you just picked a place like created a space for those precious keys you know or you set up auto pay for your bills like so you're not consistently surprised oh wait what that bills do it's like no it's it's due every month or like you might be annoyed like getting ready to go to the gym might be struggle to go to gym at all but what if you just i don't know prepped your gym back before bed. So the morning's a little bit smoother. Or maybe you meal prep on the weekend. So weeknights

are just a little less chaotic. I think sometimes, especially when you think about like, your romantic relationships, you know, one of the most loving things you can do is remove a small recurring frustration. Like sometimes the best gift you can give somebody you love is a even like a little bit of a better system. Like as a leader, you know, you start thinking about, man, how am I going to remove irritants from my people? Like sometimes it's not even giving them a bigger bonus. It's just giving them a better system.

Like what I love about this, removing irritants idea is that, like, irritants communicate something. Like students leaving a campus. Well, that communicates desire. Like if somebody's complaining about something, they're communicating some sort of misalignment. Like if people have a certain workaround that it's like they're doing it because it's communicating some sort of inefficiency. Like even silence can communicate resignation.

And I think as a leader, like we often listen to words, but I think their behavior is louder. Like all of it is trying to communicate something to us. And so at some point, I think. what we learn from a high point university is we have to take a step back and ask the question, where are people cutting across the grass in our organization? Where are they bypassing the official system? Where are they creating their own solutions because the former ones are too slow or too frustrating? My friends, that's not rebellion, it's data. And if we're paying attention to it and removing the irritant, I think we can create a better culture. If you and I,

are the kinds of people that are humble enough to pay attention to those small irritations, I think they reveal an enormous opportunity. I don't think we always need a bigger vision. I think sometimes what we need is fewer frustrations. The organizations that win long term are not just visionary. They are attentive. The marriages that thrive aren't the most romantic. Often, they're just the most responsive.

the parents who build strong homes are not just the most loving. Oftentimes, they're the ones that are just the most observant. And so my simple challenge today is I want you to, I want you to find three people this week. Yeah, whether you work with them or live with them, you know, there's three people this week. Hey, what's one thing that frustrates you around here? Hey, what's the most annoying thing that you have to deal with week in and week out?

and just listen without defending it and do your best to find that one irritant and ask yourself what can I do to remove it you don't have to fix everything but if you fix something one thing I think momentum will begin and I think relief with one annoyance can build a lot of trust

trust can build some loyalty and I think loyalty can build some growth My friends, thank you so much for listening to the Ryan League podcast. I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. If it added value to your life, leadership, relationships, do me a favor, share it with a friend. And if you haven't already, I would appreciate it if you subscribe, rate, leave a comment. Let me know how this is helping you in any way, shape, or form. And as always, we will always do our best to add value to your life in some way, shape, or form.

Hey, we'll catch you next episode.