Busy Isn’t Progress: The Trap of Reactive Leadership

When daily urgencies and immediate results take priority over long-term goals, when quick fixes are the default mode of execution instead of big-picture thinking or when you spend most of your time firefighting issues—putting out fires, responding to crises and reacting to challenges that surface unexpectedly—it may feel like you’re accomplishing a lot. Problems are being solved, challenges are being resolved and things are getting done. You’re highly engaged, super involved and extremely busy in trying to keep things under control and prevent them from turning into chaos. But, reacting to problems instead of anticipating them, making decisions in a haste instead of being deliberate and responding to shifting demands after they’ve occurred instead of planning and shaping the future makes you lose your effectiveness as a leader. Being constantly busy, overwhelmed and stressed does not lead to forward progress, it keeps the possibility of a better future out of reach. Reactive leadership takes away your ability to lead with a vision, prioritize what matters and prevents you from building an organization where fewer fires need to be put out in the first place—same issues keep resurfacing, teams feel directionless and being stuck in survival mode for too long leads to exhaustion and burnout. Reactive leadership is not always bad though. Responding quickly and decisively when dealing with difficult circumstances is important as a leader because irrespective of how well you’ve planned, some things are bound to fall through the cracks. You can’t predict every scenario. You can’t foresee every challenge. In such moments, reactive leadership is not only necessary, but useful—it helps you pivot quickly and seize unexpected opportunities, the ability to stay calm under pressure builds resilience and reacting quickly when conditions change rapidly can be a competitive advantage. Problem occurs when it’s your default leadership style—when what you do is shaped by external pressures and short-term impulses instead of being grounded in values and foresight. If you find what you do each day seems to have no link to any higher purpose, you probably want to rethink what you're doing. ― Ronald Heifetz If you find what you do each day seems to have no link to any higher purpose, you probably want to rethink what you're doing. ― Ronald Heifetz Here are the five questions I would ask myself every month to determine if my leadership style was too reactive. Try them out as you might be surprised with the answers: Do you let external triggers control your schedule? Proactive leaders start each day with a clear agenda—tasks to complete, meetings to attend and problems to solve such that every small step is aligned with a long-term goal. They do address unexpected challenges as they arise and may also carve out time to handle chaotic situations, but unplanned activities like these are a one-off event and not something that consumes their days and weeks. Their schedule may look packed, but it’s not filled with useless meetings or time-wasting activities. They say “no” to many things so that they can say “yes” to work that matters. By pre-blocking thinking time and factoring in effort required to lay out a clear strategy for the organization, proactive leaders do not let external triggers control their schedule. Reactive leaders, on the other hand, start their day by reacting to emails, messages and calls instead of following a clear plan. They wait for problems to arise before acting, instead of proactively planning and preparing for them. They’re so busy addressing the issues that show up each day—production issues, customer escalations, unhappy stakeholders and delivery delays—that there’s hardly any time left to think about the future. Filling days with unplanned activities keeps them busy and creates an illusion of productivity—they’re working hard, things are getting resolved and requests are being fulfilled. But, letting their schedule be governed by external events does not lead to progress. They miss critical opportunities because they don’t plan for them. They continue operating with old methods because they don’t invest in new practices. They keep building products that are not in demand because they don't foresee future needs. To identify if you’re a reactive leader, answer these questions: Is your calendar filled with meetings, issues and requests from other people or is it carefully organized to include time for reflection, strategy and forward planning? How much of your time each day do you spend on unplanned activities and how much is it based on a pref-defined agenda? How frequently do you say “no” to things that don’t add value to make space for work that matters? Do you end the day feeling accomplished or do you complain about not achieving anything significant? Do you feel exhausted and drained out each day from constantly putting out fires or do you feel a sense of calm from staying in control? Is your calendar filled with meetings, issues and requests from other people or is it carefully organized to include time for reflection, strategy and forward planning? How much of your time each day do you spend on unplanned activities and how much is it based on a pref-defined agenda? How frequently do you say “no” to things that don’t add value to make space for work that matters? Do you end the day feeling accomplished or do you complain about not achieving anything significant? Do you feel exhausted and drained out each day from constantly putting out fires or do you feel a sense of calm from staying in control? Most of us use our calendars all wrong: we don’t schedule work; we schedule interruptions. Meetings get scheduled. Phone calls get scheduled. Doctor appointments get scheduled. You know what often doesn’t get scheduled? Real work. All those other things are distractions. Often, they’re other people’s work. But they get dedicated blocks of time and your real work becomes an orphan. ― Eric Barker Most of us use our calendars all wrong: we don’t schedule work; we schedule interruptions. Meetings get scheduled. Phone calls get scheduled. Doctor appointments get scheduled. You know what often doesn’t get scheduled? Real work. All those other things are distractions. Often, they’re other people’s work. But they get dedicated blocks of time and your real work becomes an orphan. ― Eric Barker If you don’t intentionally plan and schedule important things on your calendar, external circumstances, conditions and other people will control your schedule. Reacting to things as they show up will keep you forever running without reaching anywhere. Stop playing a catch-up game. Set your own agenda and lead with it. Set your own agenda Set your own agenda Do the same issues keep resurfacing again and again? When issues show up at work, proactive leaders show genuine curiosity to understand the problem and then identify ways to fix it. They aren’t interested in the symptom because they want to dig deeper into the root cause that triggered it. Root cause analysis, though a little time consuming, is worth their effort. It not only prevents them from jumping into short-term solutions or quick fixes, but also find creative ways to tackle the root cause and prevent it from resurfacing again and again. jumping into short-term solutions jumping into short-term solutions Root cause analysis is hard—they need to look beyond the evidence right in front of them to uncover hidden issues. They need to fight the urge to quickly fix the problem and make it go away. They also need to secure a buy-in from stakeholders to invest more time and resources into it. In a fast-paced environment, this comes with a cost, but proactive leaders understand that not addressing the right problem at the right time is often more costly. Reactive leaders thrive on new problems that show up at work. It gives them something to solve and keeps them busy. With two main goals of instant gratification and short-term relief, they try to salvage the situation by patching it with quick, dirty solutions without any regard for its long-term impact. They silence people who question their quick-fix mentality, ignore concerns raised and promote a culture of superficial thinking and never-ending chaos. Teams spend most of their time mending problems instead of building systems that prevent them. Fixing the symptom gets them a temporary applause, but when the same issue keeps popping up every now and then, people in the team begin to question their credibility. After all, a leader who keeps prioritizing immediate results over long-term stability can’t be trusted—there’s growing frustration and resentment from people in the team who can’t keep up with this attitude. Some stop listening to their leaders, others quietly settle in and accept mediocrity, while those who can’t stand it eventually quit. To identify if you’re a reactive leader, answer these questions: Do you accept superficial analysis or encourage your team to dig deeper into problems to identify the actual root cause? Do you prioritize short-term fixes without considering their impact in the long-run? How do you react when people in the team request more time to investigate an issue? How often do you plan to put a long-term solution for a quick fix approved to address an urgent situation? Do you accept superficial analysis or encourage your team to dig deeper into problems to identify the actual root cause? Do you prioritize short-term fixes without considering their impact in the long-run? How do you react when people in the team request more time to investigate an issue? How often do you plan to put a long-term solution for a quick fix approved to address an urgent situation? Solving a problem without solving its root cause is like taking a step forward and then one back. Many enjoy the dance, but then complain it doesn’t bring them anywhere. — Luca Dellanna Solving a problem without solving its root cause is like taking a step forward and then one back. Many enjoy the dance, but then complain it doesn’t bring them anywhere. — Luca Dellanna If you keep applying band-aids to problems, they’ll soon rip off, leaving a bigger gap for you to fill. More time, resources and energy will be wasted in trying to resolve recurring issues. Don’t default to damage control with a short-term fix. Identify the root cause and lead with a long-term perspective. Are your decisions driven by mood and emotions? When making decisions, proactive leaders make a conscious attempt to keep their biases, emotions and personal beliefs from clouding their judgment. They invite multiple perspectives, encourage those who disagree with them and take into account current and future expectations before locking down on the path to take. Their decisions aren’t grounded in random assumptions or personal opinions—careful analysis, multiple data points, past experience and many other factors are taken into consideration. When making high stakes decisions, proactive leaders slow down instead of rushing through the process because important details can be overlooked when people are in a haste. This does not mean they take forever to decide or don’t set aside a deadline to commit. It just involves being careful, cautious and intentional in reaching a conclusion. They don’t succumb to pressure or unnecessary demands from others—making a good decision is their job, not pleasing others. Reactive leaders think and decide impulsively. When something appeals to them or aligns with their beliefs, they quickly move on with the decision instead of taking a moment to step back and vet it thoroughly. They also have the tendency to flip-flop between decisions—an excellent idea when they were in a great mood may no longer be worthy when dealing with a frustrating situation at work. Intuition is good when backed with knowledge, experience and data. But, it can be disastrous when it’s solely driven by moods and feelings. When dealing with stress and pressure, reactive leaders make even more blunders. They commit to aggressive deadlines, say yes to projects that don’t make sense and may let go of a great opportunity that requires time and commitment. Achieving anything significant becomes a real battle in the team—there’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty involved as projects are abandoned, priorities are changed and people in the team lack clear goals. The whole organization suffers when a leader makes abrupt decisions that aren’t backed by data and logic. To identify if you’re a reactive leader, answer these questions: Do you have the habit of making decisions in the spur of a moment without taking the time to think it through? Do you factor in multiple perspectives and alternative views into your decision-making process or do you solely rely on your personal beliefs and opinions? How often do you change decisions and is it backed by data or based on a hunch? How do your decisions typically turn out—do they achieve the desired outcomes or end up being a poor choice? Do you have the habit of making decisions in the spur of a moment without taking the time to think it through? Do you factor in multiple perspectives and alternative views into your decision-making process or do you solely rely on your personal beliefs and opinions? How often do you change decisions and is it backed by data or based on a hunch? How do your decisions typically turn out—do they achieve the desired outcomes or end up being a poor choice? Leadership requires one to make decisions that may not be liked by everyone, but great leaders always ensure that the choices they make will benefit anyone. ― Gift Gugu Mona Leadership requires one to make decisions that may not be liked by everyone, but great leaders always ensure that the choices they make will benefit anyone. ― Gift Gugu Mona Emotions aren’t necessarily bad and can be useful signals to guide decision-making. But you have to use them as your anchor, not a weapon. Stop rushing into decisions. Pause and make a deliberate choice. Do you often jump in to gain control? Proactive leaders not only delegate work, they trust and empower their teams to take control, make decisions and do the work necessary to succeed. Delegation does not mean abdication—they work closely with their teams by guiding and coaching them along the way without micromanaging and trying to assert authority and gain control. With the right balance of freedom and support, people in the team excel—designing their own solutions enhances creative thinking skills, learning to navigate complexity builds problem solving skills and confronting obstacles develops resilience. Empowerment leads to infectious positive energy that charges up the team to go above and beyond. Reactive leaders like to be in charge even at the expense of their team’s learning and growth. When an issue occurs or things don’t work out as expected, instead of giving freedom to their teams to identify what went wrong and determine the next best possible course of action, they jump in and try to gain control. They start fixing things on their own, dictating solutions and stop listening to people. They assert authority to silence people and justify their involvement. This behavior stems from insecurity, superiority complex or someone who has a problem trusting others. stop listening stop listening Getting involved is not a problem as long as it’s done with the intent to help their team, but when it involves lack of trust in their team’s abilities and competence, it makes them feel weak and powerless. Taking away their sense of empowerment leads to low morale and destroys their confidence. People stop pushing themselves to find better solutions, they stop identifying alternative strategies to navigate complexity and not getting the opportunity to learn from challenges makes them more prone to mistakes and failures. To identify if you’re a reactive leader, answer these questions: What’s your default instinct to problems at work—do you act as a savior for your team or do you challenge them to solve their own mess? Do you empower your team to navigate challenges or do you get involved because you don’t trust them enough? How do people in the team feel about you—do they feel micromanaged or being supported? How much are you involved in day-to-day work priorities—do you lead with a high level view or demand every small detail? What’s your default instinct to problems at work—do you act as a savior for your team or do you challenge them to solve their own mess? Do you empower your team to navigate challenges or do you get involved because you don’t trust them enough? How do people in the team feel about you—do they feel micromanaged or being supported? How much are you involved in day-to-day work priorities—do you lead with a high level view or demand every small detail? A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: “We did it ourselves.” ― Lao Tzu A leader is best when people barely know he exists. When his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: “We did it ourselves.” ― Lao Tzu You’re not valued as a leader by the number of problems you solve yourself, but by the number of people you enable to solve those problems. Stop dominating others. Illuminate their potential by letting go of control. Do you make everything seem urgent? Though proactive leaders plan well ahead of time, they can’t foresee every challenge or ignore urgent requests that show up at the last minute. Instead of pushing important work aside whenever an urgent request shows up at work, they seek a fine balance between them. They ruthlessly prioritize, set clear expectations and provide complete clarity on which requirements deserve immediate attention and which ones must be pushed aside to make space for important work. They don’t pressure their teams with unreasonable demands by categorizing everything as urgent and leaving no room to innovate, experiment and do more meaningful work. ruthlessly prioritize ruthlessly prioritize This isn’t always easy as there’s constant pressure to do more, but proactive leaders know that creating a false sense of urgency won’t help the team perform better. Rather, it will only blur the line between inconsequential activities and work that will push the team forward. Instead of trying to get more done, they focus on what matters. They coach their teams to manage expectations, say “no” when something does not align with their goals and not give in to undue requests without challenging them first. Reactive leaders lead with the belief that keeping people on their toes is the only way work gets done. They treat every request as a priority creating a sense of ever-present panic, anxiety and fear. Attaching a heightened sense of urgency to every request makes it difficult for their teams to get any meaningful work done. Being bombarded with a false sense of urgency makes them operate like a mad powerhouse—people in the team keep running in many different directions without actually reaching anywhere. There’s little space for creativity and innovation as people feel stuck in execution-only mode. Jumping from one task to another and being in a constant state of overwhelm and reactivity can drain team energy, increase stress and can even lead to burnout. When employees don’t get time to do deep work or experience the joy and pleasure of being in a state of flow, they feel unhappy, stuck and dissatisfied. Mindless busyness due to a false sense of urgency does not lead to progress, it only adds to stress. Expecting people to take urgent requests seriously and attend to them in a timely manner isn’t wrong. It’s counterproductive when every other request is given a high priority and the team is expected to jump at the chance. To identify if you’re a reactive leader, answer these questions: How much of your team’s time goes in urgent requests and how much time is spent on planned important activities? Are you careful in the language you use to communicate priorities to ensure people don’t get the wrong message? Does your team look engaged, energized and happy or do they look overwhelmed, exhausted and burnt out? Is your team clear about what truly matters? How do they typically decide what gets their attention and what does not deserve it? How much of your team’s time goes in urgent requests and how much time is spent on planned important activities? Are you careful in the language you use to communicate priorities to ensure people don’t get the wrong message? Does your team look engaged, energized and happy or do they look overwhelmed, exhausted and burnt out? Is your team clear about what truly matters? How do they typically decide what gets their attention and what does not deserve it? If leaders don’t articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them don’t know what their own priorities should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted. — Robert Iger If leaders don’t articulate their priorities clearly, then the people around them don’t know what their own priorities should be. Time and energy and capital get wasted. — Robert Iger False urgency misleads employees by keeping them super busy, stressed and anxious without doing impactful work or creating any value. Build the right culture in your organization—one where impact, creative thinking and long-term value creation is valued over unwanted chaos, firefighting and reactive thinking. Summary You’re a reactive leader if you spend most of your time reacting to the things in your environment—customer complaints, production issues, delivery delays, last minute change requests and market shifts—instead of proactively planning and shaping the future. Take control of your schedule—when you don’t prioritize what matters, you let go of the opportunity to create a better future. You’re a reactive leader if superficial analysis, quick fixes and short-term solutions are your goto strategy to deal with problems at work. Getting problems out of the way quickly may seem like progress, but when the same issues keep repeating again and again, you move backward, not forward. Dig deeper into the root cause. Lead with a long-term view. You’re a reactive leader if your decisions are driven by your moods and emotions as opposed to data and logic. You don’t pause to think or take time to reach a conclusion even though the stakes may be high or the decision may be irreversible. Stop being impulsive. Don’t make decisions in the spur of the moment. You’re a reactive leader if you're impatient and have a hard time trusting your team to fix issues or letting go after delegating important work. Getting involved with the intent to take over destroys your team’s confidence and morale. Empower them. Don’t diminish their potential. You’re a reactive leader if you demand everything “now” or try to create a false sense of urgency in your team. Categorizing everything as urgent not only sidelines important work, constantly dealing with panic and stress compromises on your team’s mental health. Identify what matters. Communicate it clearly. You’re a reactive leader if you spend most of your time reacting to the things in your environment—customer complaints, production issues, delivery delays, last minute change requests and market shifts—instead of proactively planning and shaping the future. Take control of your schedule—when you don’t prioritize what matters, you let go of the opportunity to create a better future. You’re a reactive leader if superficial analysis, quick fixes and short-term solutions are your goto strategy to deal with problems at work. Getting problems out of the way quickly may seem like progress, but when the same issues keep repeating again and again, you move backward, not forward. Dig deeper into the root cause. Lead with a long-term view. You’re a reactive leader if your decisions are driven by your moods and emotions as opposed to data and logic. You don’t pause to think or take time to reach a conclusion even though the stakes may be high or the decision may be irreversible. Stop being impulsive. Don’t make decisions in the spur of the moment. You’re a reactive leader if you're impatient and have a hard time trusting your team to fix issues or letting go after delegating important work. Getting involved with the intent to take over destroys your team’s confidence and morale. Empower them. Don’t diminish their potential. You’re a reactive leader if you demand everything “now” or try to create a false sense of urgency in your team. Categorizing everything as urgent not only sidelines important work, constantly dealing with panic and stress compromises on your team’s mental health. Identify what matters. Communicate it clearly.