The guilt factor

"The pandemic has allowed me to do much more blue work and I feel guilty.”  This is a comment made by a business leader in the audience of a keynote I delivered last week. It’s amazing that society has made a leader feel guilty for taking time out to sit quietly, visualise the future, solve problems, dream, strategise and actually think really hard about problems and possibilities. The forced isolation has given leaders a chance to sit and truly think without interruptions, distractions, the temptation of jumping into more and had it not been forced upon that leader, chances are they would have conformed to what is expected of a business leader, which is to be busy, distracted, rundown and doing not being. Never feel guilty about being present, being a great leader, and being the best you can be based on your ability to sit for long periods of time and think really hard about something.