Busyness has become a corporate status symbol, but Dr Denis Cronson warns that constant overwork may undermine leadership and performance.
Looking busy does not make an exec a superhero. Picture: iStock
Being busy has become a corporate badge of honour. Back-to-back meetings, midnight emails and a phone that never stops buzzing can make an executive look important.
But physician and executive health strategist Dr Denis Cronson said being permanently occupied does not necessarily mean being productive. Corporate culture may have blurred the difference between the two as work has become more connected, immediate and visible.
Cronson, author of The Executive Condition, said there was probably no single moment when being busy became synonymous with being successful.
“If everybody needs you, your phone never stops, and your calendar is completely full, it can feel like proof that you matter. And in leadership, there is status attached to being in demand,” he said.
But being needed all the time is not necessarily evidence of good leadership, he said.
“The problem is that activity and contribution are not the same thing. A packed diary may reflect importance. It may also reflect poor delegation, weak boundaries or an organisation that has become too dependent on one person.”
Cronson said there was an irony in the way businesses viewed executives operating permanently at capacity.
In almost any other environment, a system without spare capacity would be considered vulnerable.
“What fascinates me is that in almost every other system, zero spare capacity would worry us, but in executives, we often admire it.”
Business is often admired
Technology has added another dimension. Smartphones, messaging platforms and remote working have effectively put the office into an executive’s pocket.
Cronson said notifications can create a powerful reinforcement cycle because every incoming request carries another message with it: somebody needs you.
“For a person whose identity is tied to relevance, control or indispensability, that can feel highly affirming and rewarding. So responsiveness starts to feel like productivity, and interruption starts to feel like importance.”
He cautioned against describing this behaviour as addiction in the clinical sense, although he said the neurochemical reinforcement loop could resemble one. Over time, quieter periods can become uncomfortable, despite these being precisely when leaders have an opportunity to think strategically rather than react to the next demand.
There was also a difference between genuine periods of extreme workload and living permanently in crisis mode, Cronson said.
A major transaction, deadline or business crisis could legitimately demand long hours. The warning signs appear when the exception becomes business as usual.
“If every month is a crisis, if the leader cannot delegate, if they feel uncomfortable taking leave, or if an empty hour makes them anxious, then workload is probably no longer the whole explanation.”
Then, it’s important to figure out whether all that work was making the organisation stronger or simply making it increasingly reliant on the executive.
Cronson said businesses should also reconsider how they view executives who cannot disconnect.
Is it actually good for an organisation?
Instead of celebrating a chief executive who cannot take two weeks’ leave, he said companies should be asking why the organisation cannot operate without them.
“Suddenly permanent availability becomes a systems issue. Poor delegation becomes a resilience issue. Indispensability stops being seen as heroic.”
Cronson said that this did not mean ambitious people should stop working hard. Instead, companies needed to rethink what sustainable high performance actually looked like.
“Producing extraordinary results today is impressive. Being able to preserve the judgment, health, humanity and capacity to keep producing them over time is a much more complete form of leadership.”
