In the last few months, I’ve been hearing a similar theme from different organisations:
“Our senior leaders are constantly firefighting. There’s no space to think, let alone plan.”
Whether you’re seeing this happening in the leaders around you, or you’re feeling it yourself, it’s a warning sign.
image: Tak Kei Wong
It’s not about a lack of effort - you can see that people are doing everything they can to deliver. But when the pressure is constant, complexity and change are increasing, the capacity to step back, reflect and lead proactively disappears.
And that creates a ripple effect. Priorities blur and everything starts to feel urgent. Decisions get made… then unmade. Teams lose direction, energy dips and morale suffers.
You’ve likely seen this before - where firefighting becomes the norm, the cost and impact spreads well beyond the leader. Culture, performance, and wellbeing all take a hit. And when that happens, confidence in leadership to navigate rising levels of change and complexity, can drop.
Research from Russell Reynolds Associates shows that “confidence in executive teams has progressively declined, implying that the executive team’s ability to address [this] ongoing uncertainty and ever-increasing complexity is waning.”
A different way to approach this challenge
This isn’t just an issue with pace and it’s definitely not a time management challenge. This is what happens when leaders are trying to navigate complexity with tools that were designed for more predictable times.
If this is something you're noticing in your organisation - it’s worth a conversation. I help to create space for senior leaders to get out of the weeds and lead with more clarity, energy and intention.
Support in this situation isn’t about giving people all the answers. Instead, it’s about giving people the right space to pause, spot patterns, and start leading differently, even when things feel really uncertain.
I’ve seen what becomes possible when leaders have that space. Mindsets shift, decision-making sharpens, team dynamics change and momentum picks up.
So if this is something you’re seeing as you head towards the September rush and it’s bothering you, let’s talk.