Have you ever reached the end of a Friday and felt entirely depleted, yet struggled to name a single meaningful thing you accomplished? You spent the week putting out fires, racing between meetings, and clearing your inbox. You were moving at top speed. But when you look back at the week, you have to ask yourself a hard question. Were you actually moving forward?
In a recent conversation with executive coach Nikki Goldman on the Level Up Leadership podcast, we explored this exact phenomenon. Nikki calls it being “stuck in motion”. It is a trap that catches even the most experienced, well-intentioned leaders.
The tension at the heart of this problem is the pull between operational busyness and strategic clarity. As the pace of work accelerates, leaders are expected to do more, know more, and deliver faster. The rapid integration of AI into our workflows only adds to the sense of overwhelm. Work velocity has increased, and in response, we simply try to run faster. We juggle dozens of priorities at once. But when everything is a priority, nothing is.
The Trap of External Validation
When you are stuck in motion, you are highly active but strategically static.
In my book Enhanced Leadership, I write about how a lack of strategic clarity forces leaders to rely on the wrong metrics. When we fail to set our own parameters for success, we default to the easiest external metric available. In most corporate cultures, that metric is sheer busyness. We use exhaustion as a proxy for effectiveness.
Nikki suggests a vital shift in perspective. Instead of relying on rigid, externally driven goals, leaders need to define their own personal “win conditions”. What does it actually mean to win your week?
A win condition might be leaving the office on time four days a week to eat dinner with your family. It might be carving out twenty minutes of protected time each morning for quiet reflection and planning. It might mean delegating a specific operational task so you can focus on a long-term strategic initiative. By defining your win conditions, you take back control of the scoreboard. You stop reacting to the noise and start anchoring yourself to what matters.
Calm is a Superpower
To step out of the cycle of constant motion, you must learn to regulate your own emotional state. As Nikki rightly points out, calm is a leader’s ultimate superpower.
When you step into the office, you are standing in a glass box. Your team watches everything you do. They notice the words you choose, the pace at which you speak, and the energy you bring into the room. If you arrive rattled, rushed, and frantic, your team will absorb and reflect that chaos. You simply cannot lead others effectively if you cannot lead yourself.
Embracing calm allows you to pause and assess the many balls you are juggling. You will quickly realise that some of those balls are made of glass, and some are made of plastic. If you drop a plastic ball, it will bounce; you can always pick it up later. If you drop a glass ball, it shatters. A calm leader knows the difference and prioritises accordingly.
Practical Implications for Leaders
If you feel stuck in motion, here is how you can regain your footing and start leading with intention.
Define your win conditions: Before you open your email on Monday morning, write down three things that will define a successful week for you. Make sure at least one of them relates to your own wellbeing or strategic thinking.
Identify the glass balls: Look at your current workload. What are the two or three things that absolutely cannot fail? Protect those fiercely. Give yourself permission to let the plastic balls drop temporarily.
Tackle your conflict debt: Frantic leaders avoid hard conversations because they feel they lack the time or emotional bandwidth. Nikki uses a brilliant analogy here. If someone had spinach in their teeth at a party, you would tell them. You would not let them walk around all night looking foolish. Feedback is the same. Do not let poor performance or bad behaviour go unaddressed. Tell your team when they have spinach in their teeth. It is the kindest, most effective way to lead.
A Note for Coaches
For those of you coaching leaders through these challenges, the “stuck in motion” syndrome is easy to spot but hard to break. Here is how you can help your clients.
Spot the frantic operator: Listen for clients who speak rapidly, complain about their schedule, and list a high volume of completed tasks without being able to articulate the broader impact. They are seeking validation for their busyness.
Challenge their self-awareness: We are the main characters in our own movies, which makes self-awareness incredibly difficult. Do not coach in a vacuum. Use 360-degree feedback interviews to help your client see how their frantic pace is impacting the people around them.
Pull the thread: Treat your conversations like examining a loose thread on a sweater. Ask simple, direct questions about their routines. When they mention a frustration, pull the thread gently. Ask them, “Is this a miscommunication based on mistrust, or simply a lack of alignment?” Help them slow down enough to see the forest for the trees.
Moving Forward
Leadership is not about how fast you can move. It is about the direction you are heading and the people you are taking with you. Taking a moment to breathe, define your win conditions, and embrace a sense of calm will do more for your team’s performance than an extra ten hours of frantic emailing.
Take a look at your calendar for the week ahead. Where are you stuck in motion, and what plastic balls can you afford to drop?
