We’ve built entire workplaces around the illusion that motion equals progress. Endless meetings, daily check-ins, another “urgent” email that could have waited. We tell ourselves it’s productivity… but what it really is, is noise.
I see it everywhere – leaders running at flat out, calendars packed (but in an adhoc way), inboxes overflowing, and dashboards full of colour-coded activity.
Yet when I ask, “What changed because of all this effort?” the answer is often silence. Activity has become a coping mechanism. We fill every space so we don’t have to face the harder question: is any of this actually adding value?
Busyness makes us feel important. It gives us a hit of validation, that little dopamine rush that says, “I’m needed.” But motion without meaning slowly drains the energy and clarity from your team. If everything is urgent, nothing is important. If everyone is busy, no one is focused. When we confuse motion with momentum, we reward exhaustion instead of impact. And that’s not leadership… that’s chaos wearing a Fitbit.
If you really want to understand what your organisation values, don’t look at your mission statement – look at your calendar. Your calendar is your culture audit. It reveals what you actually prioritise, not what you say you do.
Is there white space for thinking, reflection, or connection? Or is every minute jammed with meetings that could have been emails?
Do you make time for people – or just for processes?
When you look at the rhythm of your week, are you leading with intention, or are you simply reacting to whatever’s next in your diary?
Now zoom in closer. Look at your meetings. Ask yourself what the real purpose is.
Does this meeting create clarity, connection, or capability, or is it just another box to tick?
Would anything truly break if it didn’t happen?
Who actually needs to be there, and who’s there simply because they always have been? Who would you reschedule the meeting for?
What would happen if you halved the time, changed the format, or even stopped running it altogether?
Extraordinary leaders are deliberate about their calendars. They design time with intention, balancing rhythm, recovery, and reflection.
If I can’t trust that your answer is no when it needs to be no, I can’t trust your yes. It’s meaningless.
Every “yes” has a cost. When you say yes to another meeting, another project, or another request, you’re also saying no to something else… your focus, your energy, your recovery, your creativity, or even your own hauora. The problem is, most leaders don’t stop to name what that “no” is. Over time, those invisible no’s add up. They erode clarity, stretch capacity, and blur priorities until everything feels urgent and nothing truly matters. So before you say yes, pause and ask yourself: what am I saying no to by choosing this? Because extraordinary leadership isn’t about saying yes to everything – it’s about saying yes to what matters most.
At Radical HR, one of our core values is Adding Value, Always. It’s our measure. Our lens. Our gut check. Before we commit to a project, design a workshop, or start something new, we ask one question: Does this add value, or is it just motion? If it doesn’t move the needle towards our outcomes, it’s noise. If it doesn’t align with values, it’s clutter.
It takes courage to pause. To look at the chaos of motion and call time. To say, “We’re doing a lot… but not necessarily what matters.” But that’s what extraordinary leaders do, they edit. They reflect on the work, the meetings, and even the metrics that no longer serve. They design for meaning, not motion. Because value isn’t created in the busyness. It’s created in the focus, the reflection, and the intentionality of what we choose to do….. and what we choose to stop doing.
So here’s your challenge this week: audit your calendar. Take a curious, courageous look at where your time really goes. Notice what fuels connection, clarity, or capability … and what simply fills space. Then, choose one meeting, one report, or one recurring task and ask yourself, what would happen if we stopped doing this? If the answer is “nothing breaks”… congratulations, you’ve just found your first piece of meaningless motion. Let’s start a new kind of productivity revolution, one where every action adds value, every hour matters, and every human has the energy to thrive.
Author:
Lisa Shaw
Chief Empowerment Office (CEO) / Founder
Radical HR
lisashaw@radicalhr.nz
029 226 8862