If nearly every senior leader agrees that strategy is essential, why is it so often squeezed out of the diary? Dorie Clark’s Harvard Business Review article tackles this paradox, highlighting a growing concern in leadership circles: the busyness culture that crowds out time for the very thinking that ensures long-term success.
At Mind-Gap, we regularly observe this tension in the organisations we work with; leaders who are overloaded with meetings, reacting to the urgent, and struggling to pause long enough to think ahead. It’s not a lack of intelligence or care. It’s a culture problem. Somewhere along the way, being ‘busy’ became the measure of effectiveness.
The Illusion of Productivity
Modern work culture subtly rewards those who are always on, always available and always rushing. The result? Strategic thinking gets treated as a luxury – something to be scheduled “when there’s time.” But, as Clark points out, strategy doesn’t require hours of isolation. What it really needs is mental space, space that can be created through simple habits like task offloading, reflection time, or even blocking out regular thinking slots in the diary.
At Mind-Gap, our Coaching interventions, leadership programmes or residential strategy events help individuals, teams and businesses carve out time to reframe their priorities and reconnect with strategic purpose. See more here www.mind-gap.co.uk/strategic-reviews/
Leading Strategically in the Real World
Strategic leadership today is about knowing what not to do. It’s about seeing patterns, questioning assumptions and making deliberate choices, not just reacting. Through executive coaching and leadership facilitation, Mind-Gap can help leaders step back from the noise and rediscover the value of pause and perspective.
We believe that strategic thinking should sit at the heart of leadership, not at the edge of it. And that begins with creating space for it to exist.
Ready to put strategy back on the table?
Read the full article by Dorie Clark here: If Strategy Is So Important, Why Don’t We Make Time for It?
