Why the busiest CEO is the biggest bottleneck

The most dangerous myth in modern business leadership might be that the best CEOs are the busiest ones. Walk into any boardroom and you'll find executives wearing their 80-hour weeks like badges of honour, proud of being "hands-on" and "in the weeds." But this approach is fundamentally flawed. When leaders spend every day bogged down in operations, they're not leading effectively – they might actually be creating the very bottleneck that's constraining their company's growth.

Understanding this properly takes years of experience, but a CEO's job is fundamentally different from their executive team's role. CEOs hire leaders to run technology, sales, marketing, finance, and operations, it's their job to be involved in daily execution.

The weight distribution problem

When CEOs have too much weight leaned on immediate operations, they fail to prioritise the things that actually determine long-term success: people, strategy, and values. Without that elevated perspective, the business loses direction entirely. There's no way of knowing where the company is headed if the leader is not raising their head above the parapet to look ahead.

It's about understanding that when leaders are always reacting to the immediate, they can't lead intentionally. And if the CEO can't see the destination, how can anyone else?

The challenge is that this goes against every instinct. When problems arise, the natural tendency is to dive in and solve them. But that's precisely when leaders need to resist and ask: Is this something the CEO should be solving, or is this something the team should be solving while leadership focuses on the bigger picture?

Measured approach to innovation

This principle of strategic focus becomes particularly important when dealing with technology decisions. In an industry driven by endless hype, it's tempting to chase every new development that promises to revolutionise everything. But the most successful companies take a more measured approach to new tech.

Smart organisations analyse their customers’ installed base and build what they truly need. The adoption curve, especially for enterprises, is not that fast, so by the time there is a critical mass in the market, that's when it's worth spending the time to invest in that solution. The same approach applies to the software used to build software, look for things with critical mass, not just something new with hype, because these tools will be used for decades.

This measured thinking requires the kind of perspective leaders can only get when they're not constantly firefighting operational issues.

The reality of transformation costs

Perhaps nowhere is strategic thinking more crucial than when dealing with enterprise modernisation. What's often misunderstood about transformation is that it's an transformative shift that touches every corner of the business. People focus on the technical aspects, but the real challenge is much broader.

Enterprise IT systems are unbelievably expensive to implement. It's not unheard of for the implementation to exceed a billion dollars for a large business. The value case at the time was pretty clear - centralise thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of systems, build a global supply chain, and centralise finance and HR operations. The payoff was well worth it.

But when it comes time to modernise those systems 10 or 20 years later, the cost is still high but the benefits aren't what they used to be, because much of the value would have already been realised long ago. So when companies are forced into an upgrade cycle, they have to ask a fundamental question: upgrade the existing system, or start from scratch? When starting from scratch, it makes sense to open minds to the various options available for replacement.

That's what makes it existential. It's not just a technology decision, it's a complete rethinking of how the business operates.

Leading across different contexts

Leading globally teaches you very quickly that while strategic thinking is universal, execution must be adapted locally. There are many more similarities in problems across different regions than differences, whether it's go-to-market challenges or engineering velocity issues, the core problems tend to be remarkably consistent.

However, when it comes to driving change, different regions require very different approaches. The US favours action and direction, whereas parts of Europe prefer to be heard first. Even within these differences, there’s a thread of commonality: people need to be brought on a change journey, but how fast they get there varies based on their culture and location.

CEOs must adapt their style to work with people locally, leaders can't simply impose their approach on a region. This, again, can only be done effectively when operating at the right strategic level, not when buried in operational details.

The AI challenge ahead

Looking forward, this strategic imperative is only becoming more important. In fact, this is something that keeps many CEOs awake at night. While much technology represents hype, AI is no longer hype, it's something that's changing the way everyone works forever.

Businesses must think not only about the AI products they're building, but also how they're using AI to build other products and feature sets. AI is already a massive driver of productivity and efficiency for internal teams and customers alike, but the long-term impact of this has ramifications for every job level, including CEOs.

What this will look like in the future remains unclear, but in 2025, organisations need ideas and guidance about how AI should be used, where it's essential, and where it's entirely inappropriate. Companies have a responsibility to help their people, as well as their customers, adapt to this changing world. That's an additional dimension of change to handle on top of existing work efforts.

This kind of forward-thinking responsibility can't be managed from the operational trenches. It requires the strategic perspective that comes from stepping back and thinking about where the company is going, not just where it is today.

Rethinking leadership effectiveness

The uncomfortable truth is that the busiest CEOs often become bottlenecks themselves. When every decision runs through the top, when every problem lands on the CEO's desk, leadership has created an artificial ceiling on everything the organisation can achieve.

Effective leadership isn't about having all the answers, it's about building teams and systems that can find answers independently. It's about creating clarity around direction and values, then trusting people to execute within that framework.

The best leaders devote significant time to thinking—about people, culture, strategy, and the organisation’s future. They hire smart people, coach them well, and then step aside. That isn’t laziness—it’s clarity about what leadership truly demands.

In a world of increasing complexity and accelerating change, organisations need leaders who can see beyond the immediate crisis to chart a sustainable course forward. That perspective doesn't come from being busy, it comes from being intentionally strategic about where to focus time and attention.