Episode
Know Everything. Unplug Often. Yes, Both.
- Podcast
- The Buoyant Leader
- Published
- Mar 4, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 357
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
I teach leaders two things that are both true, and mutually contradictory. One: know everything as soon as possible. Two: unplug often. Ruh-roh. How can you do both without losing your mind or your edge? Leadership Imperative #1: Consume Relentlessly Since the function of leadership is to navigate the unexpected, you have to be in the business of intelligence gathering all the time. You have to be relentless in collecting feedback in as close to real time as possible. Both internal and external to your organization. Internally: How’s the initiative going? Is the coding team at risk of mass resignations because of perceptions of unfairness? How are we training our next generation of managers? Externally: What will the current war mean for our supply chains and energy costs? What advances in agentic AI might force us to rethink our user interface? What does that latest climate study suggest about the location of our current headquarters? Leadership Imperative #2: Make Time to Digest You have to limit your exposure to the endless scroll of news and information and opinion so that your brain and nervous system don’t start glitching from overwhelm. Which means consciously unplugging from incoming data and letting your body return to (or at least move back in the direction of) present-based awareness. That doesn't mean switching tabs from Slack to Insta. That’s still consuming. It means stepping away from screens entirely and letting your body and mind process what you’ve already taken in. Consumption and Digestion Need Each Other So which imperative wins? I was on a Zoom call this morning with a friend in Abu Dhabi who’s watching war planes fly overhead, while missiles get shot down and bombs explode in the distance. She told me that the UAE government shares information pr…