More meetings, more hours, more hustle—

More meetings, more hours, more hustle—

but are you actually leading, or just reacting?

A CEO’s job isn’t to work hard.

It’s to get the business into high performance mode.

And that starts with getting—and keeping—yourself in high performance mode.

The next question:

Is everyone in the business doing the best work of their lives?

In alignment with the mission?

In other words, is each individual operating in high performance mode?

What I’ve found, working with high-performing CEOs, is this:

The more time they spend being “productive,” “efficient,” and working hard—

the more the performance of the people around them suffers.

The business can’t be in high performance mode

when the CEO is stuck in their to-do list.

I shared that on LinkedIn yesterday—

a short message to invite CEOs and leaders with their heads down in productivity and hustle mode to pause and reflect.

I work with some incredibly effective CEOs—

running tens, hundreds, and even billion £, € or $ companies.

And like any leader, they sometimes get caught in the hustle.

They even feel like impostors when they’re not hustling.

But when they feel truly effective?

It’s when they’re working in their zone of genius—

doing the work that feels natural, focused, and impactful.

And when their attention is on keeping the business in high performance mode.

What that means is—

their success, and the business’s success,

isn’t built around how much they get done or how often they say yes.

(That’s not to discount the things that really do require your attention.)

But the real power is in what they say no to—

so they’re free to focus on what matters most,

and keep the business performing at its best.

How often do you find yourself falling into hustle patterns over performance patterns?