For too long, we’ve worn our busyness like a badge of honour. Calendars packed wall-to-wall and work mails at all hours. Somewhere along the way, we equated being busy with being valuable. This glorification of busyness comes from an outdated mindset where only visible effort equals worth. In the industrial age, productivity was measured by output. If you weren’t visibly working, you weren’t contributing. But today, in a knowledge-based, creative and collaborative world of work, that equation no longer holds.
Modern leaders need to realise that productivity is not just about how much you can cram into your calendar, the focus needs to be on how effectively you can prioritise, make decisions and empower others to do their best work.
As author Greg McKeown puts it in Essentialism: “If you don’t prioritise your life, someone else will.” Your calendar is a signal to your team about what matters. If it’s overflowing with back-to-back meetings, what message are you sending?
Busy leaders miss the big picture
Busyness narrows your vision. When you’re racing from one thing to the next, there’s no space to just sit and think, to ponder, for strategy, reflection or for any meaningful connection.
Leaders stuck in the loop of doing often neglect the real work of leading which is cultivating culture, developing people, encouraging creativity and innovation and aligning teams to purpose. You might feel accomplished ticking off tasks but if your team is overwhelmed and overworked, these things aren’t happening.
Chronic busyness leads to burnout. When leaders model overwork, employees tend to follow. When you never switch off, neither do they. A constantly busy leader unintentionally builds a culture where stillness is seen as laziness. Someone sitting in their chair gazing out the window could think of the next big innovative idea for the business, but if this is frowned upon and seen as unproductive, it will be avoided and the space filled with things to do instead.
Time is not the issue
We all have the same 24 hours. The difference lies in how we use them. High-impact leaders think in terms of value, rather than volume. They protect time to think, to talk with their people, to reflect and to work on the business, not just in it. They delegate not because they’re too busy, but because they trust their team and know their energy is better spent elsewhere.
Here are some practical ways to shift from being busy to being intentional:
- Audit your calendar weekly
Look at where your time is going and don’t spread yourself too thin. Ask yourself: What’s truly essential? What can be delegated? What adds value, and what just adds noise? Remove meetings that drain energy or aren’t necessary and let go of the idea that you have to say yes to every meeting and every discussion. - Schedule time to think
If you don’t carve out space to reflect, it won’t happen. Schedule thinking time as seriously as a client meeting and use it to consider team dynamics, long-term planning or simply to reset. Maybe replace one of the non-essential meetings with some designated down-time and embrace the creative energy of just being still. - Be clear on the priorities
When you don’t have clear priorities, everything feels urgent. Set clear priorities for your team so everyone knows what’s most important versus what isn’t. Make space for focused work instead without constant interruption. - Be more present
Slow down enough to be present in conversations and removed from distractions. When you listen fully, you build trust and gain a deeper perspective. Some of the most impactful leadership decisions can happen not during a flurry of activity, but in the stillness. - Share the why, not just the what
When your team understands the purpose and meaning behind what they’re doing, they will be more engaged and make better decisions. So, make sure you spend more time clarifying direction and less time managing the details.
A calmer kind of leadership
We need to stop applauding exhaustion and start celebrating clarity. Leadership today calls for presence, intentionality and space – space to think, space to grow, and space to lead others well.
We need to collectively let go of the idea that busyness equals productiveness. As leaders we need to be and encourage creativity, innovation, new ideas and a growth mindset. We need to learn from mistakes and forge out new bold ways of doing things. None of this is possible if we are just bogged down in the busyness of work, ticking off a list of never-ending tasks and meetings.
So next time you’re tempted to fill every spare minute of yours or your teams’ calendars, ask yourself “What kind of leader do I want to be seen as? One who’s always busy or one who’s truly effective”?
I’d love to help you and your team work better together.
Don’t hesitate. Get in touch today.