A CEO I’ve worked with for years describes it this way: “I’m immersed in too many operational issues … working harder, longer, faster … yet I don’t feel as effective as I once did.” Another told me: “Everyday I’m asked to make decisions for situations that have never occurred before.” There’s no drama or complaint. That’s not who they are. Just a candid recognition it may be time to readjust their approach – an increasingly common conclusion among many leaders today. While highly engaged and delivering results, they’re feeling less confident in how they spend their most precious asset: their time. It’s not about the commitment to lead or fatigue or failure. Rather, it’s a signal the demands and expectations are changing in ways they haven’t encountered before and aren’t sure how to navigate.
The era of exponential change and soul-crushing volatility weighs heavily on the shoulders of those who lead. The impacts of what they decide ripple through the organization and rewrite the deliverables day to day. They’re privy to information and insights that can’t be shared, whether to protect bottom-line initiatives, preserve morale or implement transformative decisions. Leadership is critical in moments of organizational vulnerability – losses, layoffs, culture shifts, regulatory changes, reputational disasters, or black-swan crises like the pandemic. These challenges intensify invasive scrutiny and questioning from stakeholders and place even heavier demands on leaders, sometimes to the point where they feel their authority is in jeopardy.
In the past, the pressures on leaders were episodic – problems arose, solutions were found, decisions were made, plans evolved. Crises were rare, actions were taken and eventually the intensity of the moment receded. Learning was consolidated, perspective was regained, people adapted, and things moved forward. The next day, month or year became the advent of a new norm. Today, that cadence has largely disappeared. Volatility no longer interrupts operations; it defines them. Leaders must now make consequential decisions in the moment and too often without the time needed for deeper reflection, consolidation and planning. Changing constituency expectations, emergent circumstances and the need to act is now constant.
Leaders today carry the expanding burden of self-doubt and anxiety arising from problems that defy clear definition. They must absorb the concerns, expectations and evaluations of boards, investors, colleagues, customers and employees, while projecting confidence and command of the enterprise. This cognitive and emotional load is unrelenting and accumulates. Over time, the cost shows up in a gradual erosion of effectiveness, efficiency, conviction and follow through. Activity increases but the quality of the critical deliverables diminishes.
The guidance and advice given to leaders often assumes conditions that no longer exist: relative stability, manageable decision cycles, time for reflection and recovery. Counsel on how to manage one’s energy better, delegate more effectively or become more adaptive may sound eminently reasonable but, under the uncertainty and unpredictability of today, it becomes yet another stressor layered onto an already overloaded agenda of performance expectations. And being human, some tend to infer this reflects their personal shortcomings rather than a structural shift in the nature of the work they’re doing and a quantum shift in stakeholder demands or standards.
The issue is not one of intelligence, effort or focus. The challenge is that leadership increasingly requires different core competencies as circumstances change. Learning it and earning it every day is just part of being a leader. It’s more about mindset than skill sets. And one that receives less attention than deserved is self-regulation, temperance and discipline under sustained hardship and stress. It’s less about the oft-repeated issue of work/life balance or wellness and more about being fearless when new circumstances become ambiguous, complicated or emotionally charged.
Leaders who adapt don’t disengage; they become more disciplined. They take notice when decision quality and speed begin to degrade. They see intentionality as a strategic asset rather than a personal virtue. They focus on what they can control not on what they can’t. They can’t please all the people all the time. They understand which decisions require their involvement and which do not. They establish boundaries that protect their capacity to think. They take a step back and switch the focus from the pressure to perform to the opportunity to learn a better way.
When we feel we’re being less effective, we must first cut ourselves some slack. Fretful overthinking only worsens anxiety. Writing things out serves as a cleaning service for the overstuffed brain and is one of the best ways to lower stress and learn about ourselves. See the bigger picture: What decisions will actually matter in six months? What questions are we not asking? What assumptions are we acting on that no longer hold? Restore strategic traction by reallocating time from day-to-day management rituals to creating space for sense making and being more deliberate. Effectiveness is not a consequence of harder, it’s engaging perspective. Build support networks inside and outside the organization and break out of the “CEO bubble” by asking those who are reliably known to speak truth to power what they think or how they might help.
Working harder under the stress of self-doubt only accelerates the decline in effectiveness leaders seek to reverse. In consequence, they become the source of even greater problems. Those who consistently deliver aren’t the ones capable of absorbing more pressure or enduring the trauma of a crisis. They’re the ones who recognize that working harder while feeling less effective is a warning signal amidst all the noise. They step back, rethink, recalibrate and reinvent themselves. Self-care is not an indulgence; it happens to be the essence of smart leadership.