Last week I worked with a group of around 60 leaders in a whole day workshop. Unusually, I wasn’t leading the session. I was there, in a paid capacity, as a ‘point of continuity’. I’ve been working with this organisation to support its leadership development for some time, and I expect to do so well into the future. My role on the day was more subtle than being the ‘front of the room’ facilitator. It was more about noticing and joining the dots as needed.

As the day unfolded, I noticed I was feeling slightly tense. Part of me was wondering what the client thought as they saw me ‘not doing much’. That part of me was yearning to be more visibly active so I could show the client, and the participants, that I was delivering real value.

Yet another part of me reminded that first fearful part that I was adding value by simply being in the room. By listening. By watching. By joining dots. There was nothing more for me to do.

How often do you feel the need to jump in and lead? You know: those times when you want to take the reins, when in fact the situation will likely be best served if you allow others to have a voice, to take ownership, and to ‘step into the vacuum’?

Our organisations are rife with presenteeism and wasteful busyness. One driver is the mandate for employees to be ‘back in the office’. This might justify paying for the expensive office space, but it also promotes the false notion that being seen means that you’re being productive.

Let’s remind ourselves that busy does not equal valuable. In his latest book Slow Productivity, Cal Newport defines an interesting term: ‘Pseudo-productivity’. That’s the use of visible activity as the primary means of approximating actual productive effort. In a knowledge economy, this is a flawed premise.

Here’s what I see good leaders do to enable unhurried, mindful productivity:

1. They clarify the outcomes needed, what the work is, and what ‘being useful’ looks like
2. When thinking and reflecting is ‘the work’, they name the game and give people permission to do the work, and remind them that it’s part of their job
3. They create the conditions for people to choose how they get their work done, and make it OK not to be looking busy.
4. They’ll check in, but not too much.

In my book Change Makers, I wrote that ‘you cannot not make an impact’. Remind yourself of that. Let’s move on from the need to be visibly busy.

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For more like this, check out

Busy Does Not Equal Valuable

The Case for Unhurried Leadership