"For leaders today, the pressure to do more with less feels relentless. Leaner teams, flatter organizations, and the rise of productivity tools such as Slack, Notion.ai, and Monday.com promise efficiency but often deliver the opposite: more reporting, more deliverables, and the demand to be "always on."Organizations are increasingly falling into the " acceleration trap," taking on too much too quickly and undermining their effectiveness and well-being."
"Sandra, a senior leader in the tech sector, saw this firsthand. After a reorganization left her team stretched thin, she slipped into a " 9-9-6" routine-working nine to nine, six days a week. Gallup's research shows unmanageable workloads and unclear priorities are top drivers of burnout and disengagement. For Sandra and her team, competing priorities created the illusion of progress. Quick wins piled up, but strategic projects stalled."
Leaders face relentless pressure to do more with less as productivity tools and flatter structures create reporting and an 'always on' expectation, fueling an acceleration trap. Teams take on too many initiatives, creating the illusion of progress through quick wins while strategic projects stall. Unbounded productivity exhausts energy, diminishes strategic leadership, and increases burnout. Clear boundaries, fewer priorities, explicit ways of working for tools, redistributed ownership, and measuring outcomes over activity help leaders regain focus. Protecting strategic time, limiting initiatives, and designing collaboration norms preserve effectiveness, well-being, and long-term impact.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]