You Are Too Busy to Be a Leader!

Ashish Mishra

6 min readMay 1, 2025

Bragging about busyness and overwork triggers the same pleasure centers in our brains as food and money.

-According to research in the Wall Street Journal.

“I am busy.”
“I’m juggling a million things at once!”
“I am working 18 hours daily for this week.”

If this sounds familiar to you or your team, it’s time to pause and reflect. As Robin S. Sharma wisely noted:

Leadership is not about a title or a designation. It’s about impact, influence, and inspiration.

The Busyness Epidemic

Being perpetually busy has become our default state. When asked “How are you?”, nearly 8 out of 10 people respond with “Busy”.

According to a small experiment conducted by Nora Rosendahl, COO of Hintsa. We’ve reached a point where busyness is conflated with importance, productivity, and even success.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: wearing busyness as a badge of honor isn’t something to be proud of. In fact, research published in Personnel Psychology in 2024 found that “stress bragging” or “busy bragging” makes people appear less competent and less likable to colleagues. Even worse, this behavior creates a stress ripple effect that increases burnout among team members.

Creativity Needs Space

When we’re constantly busy, our creativity suffers. During the pandemic, we saw a surprising surge in startups and entrepreneurial ventures. Why? Because for many, the disruption created space for observation and imagination — the two essential ingredients for creativity.

As noted in a Forbes article,

“Humans have always been creative — as problem-solvers, if nothing else.”

But we need mental space for this creativity to flourish. Another study published in Forbes found that

“The more stuff we have, the less creative we are.”

This applies to our schedules as well — when they’re overstuffed, our innovative thinking diminishes.

The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire

Harvard Business Review has emphasized repeatedly that long hours backfire for both individuals and organizations. Extended work hours don’t just diminish returns — they actively harm performance, wellbeing, and organizational outcomes.

What’s particularly interesting is that according to research in the Wall Street Journal:

Bragging about busyness and overwork triggers the same pleasure centers in our brains as food and money.

We get a neurological reward from appearing busy, even when that busyness undermines our effectiveness.

The Pareto Principle: Your Leadership Lifeline

The solution to the busyness trap is hidden in plain sight — the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. Named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1897 that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population, this principle has profound implications for leadership.

Applied to leadership, the Pareto Principle suggests that:

- 20% of your efforts produce 80% of your results
- 20% of your team delivers 80% of the output
- 20% of your time determines 80% of your impact

Effective leaders recognize this imbalance and focus their energy accordingly. Instead of spreading yourself thin across countless tasks, identify the vital few activities that truly drive results.

Practical Application of the 80/20 Rule

1. Decision Making

Gather 80% of the information and make your decision in 20% of the allotted time. As Michael Edwards notes, “Having 80% of the data will do. The 20% of data you lack is probably easily made up by your expertise, experience, and intuition.”

2. Team Management

Don’t spend 80% of your time with the bottom-performing 20%. While it might seem counterintuitive, focusing too much on struggling team members can cause your star performers to feel neglected. Your top 20% who deliver 80% of results need your attention too.

3. Communication

Spend 80% of your time listening to your team and only 20% talking. This ratio transforms your leadership effectiveness by ensuring you truly understand before being understood.

4. Ideation

Allow 80% of ideas to come from your team and only 20% from yourself. This empowers your team while leveraging their collective intelligence.

5. Task Management

Focus 80% of your energy on the 20% of tasks that drive the most value. As time management expert Pamela J. Vaccaro suggests, “The 80/20 rule states that the relationship between input and output is rarely, if ever, balanced.”

A Chanakya’s Lesson for Leaders

I particularly loved these lines when I was reading spectacular book “Chanakya’s Chant”.

In Ashwin Sanghi’s “Chanakya’s Chant,” there’s a profound exchange between a scholar and an Acharya (teacher):

“Acharya, what should the punishment be for a prime minister who keeps the king ignorant of happenings in the kingdom?”
“My son, kings are ignorant not because prime ministers do not give them the right answers but because they do not ask their prime ministers the right questions. And here endeth the lesson!”

As a leader, asking the right questions matters more than having all the answers. When you’re too busy, you stop asking these essential questions.

Make Time for What Matters

Jake Knapp, “Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day” reminds us that:

“Make Time is a framework for choosing what you want to focus on, building the energy to do it, and breaking the default cycle so that you can start being more intentional about the way you live your life.”

According to Parkinson’s Law, work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. This applies to meetings, projects, and daily tasks. By setting clear boundaries on time, you can compress work and increase efficiency.

Remember that 80% of your results come from 20% of your time. Identify that crucial 20% and protect it fiercely. Delegate or eliminate the rest.

The Leadership Paradox

The ultimate leadership paradox is this: to lead effectively, you must create space in your life. The busier you are, the less effective your leadership becomes. True leadership isn’t about being constantly in motion — it’s about moving with purpose, direction, and impact.

As you reflect on your own leadership journey, ask yourself: Are you busy, or are you effective? Are you filling time, or are you creating impact? The answer may require you to put down your badge of busyness and pick up the mantle of meaningful leadership instead.

After all, at the end of your career, no one will remember how busy you were. They’ll remember how you made them feel, the vision you created, and the impact you had. And none of that comes from busyness — it comes from presence, purpose, and prioritization.

Good Reads:

There are few blogs that motivated me to write this blog.

References:

[¹]: Sharma, R. S. (2010). *The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in Life*. Free Press.
[²]: Rosendahl, N. (2019). “The Busyness Experiment.” Hintsa Performance Blog. https://www.hintsa.com/blog/busy-experiment/
[³]: Dobby, R., et al. (2024). “The Impact of Stress Bragging on Workplace Perceptions.” *Personnel Psychology*, 77(1), 123–145.
[⁴]: Robbins, M. (2020). “How the Pandemic Has Boosted Creativity.” Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mindylubber/2020/10/13/disruption-has-triggered-innovation-and-creativity/
[⁵]: Brown, G. (2019). “The Relationship Between Material Possessions and Creativity.” Forbes.
[⁶]: Perlow, L. A., & Porter, J. L. (2009). “Making Time Off Predictable — and Required.” *Harvard Business Review*, 87(10), 102–109.
[⁷]: Belkin, L. (2015). “The Cult of Busy.” *Wall Street Journal*. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-cult-of-busy-1428080581
[⁸]: Edwards, M. (2018). *The 80/20 Principle in Decision Making*. Business Expert Press.
[⁹]: Vaccaro, P. J. (2017). *Time Management: The Pareto Principle in Practice*. Productivity Press.
[¹⁰]: Sanghi, A. (2010). *Chanakya’s Chant*. Westland Publications.
[¹¹]: Knapp, J., & Zeratsky, J. (2018). *Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day*. Currency.
[¹²]: Newport, C. (2016). *Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World*. Grand Central Publishing.