Strategic Leadership Focus: Do Your Hardest Days Feel the Least Productive?
- Pam Stoik
- 1 day ago
- 2 min read
We’ve all had those Fridays. You’ve worked fifty hours. Your inbox is (miraculously) at zero. You’ve attended back-to-back meetings and checked off thirty items from your to-do list.
You're exhausted.
But as you close your laptop, a nagging feeling remains: What did I actually move forward this week?
If you can’t point to a strategic win, a breakthrough in culture, or a decision that changed the trajectory of your team, you likely fell into the Sand Trap.
The Anatomy of a Full (But Empty) Day
Think of your week as a glass jar. You have a finite amount of time, energy, and brain capacity to fill it.
As a leader, you deal with three types of "materials:"
The Sand: These are the small, non-strategic tasks. Low-value emails that somehow suck up hours. Long-winded meetings without action items. Busywork that is somehow seductive because it’s easy to "finish."
The Pebbles: These are the tasks that matter but aren't transformational. A simmering team issue, a stakeholder check-in, or a project update. They deserve a place in your week, but they shouldn't define it.
The Rocks: These are your most strategic, high-impact goals. These are the "big moves" and require long-term thinking. This includes work on difficult culture shifts, and bold decisions, transformation and change only you can lead.
The problem? Sand has a habit of multiplying. And if you pour the sand into your jar first, you’ll find that by Wednesday, it's taking up way to much of your work. This is what I call Productive Procrastination. You are busy, but not with things that are going to move the needle for your team and organization constructively.
The High Cost of "Sand First" Leadership
When you prioritize the sand, you lose time AND impact. Leaders who live in the sand often feel:
Initiative Fatigue.Your team feels like they are running on a treadmill. Lots of motion, zero distance.
A Capacity Gap. You feel like you need to clone yourself to get "real work" done, but in reality, your current capacity is simply being swallowed by "noise."
Reduced Visibility. When you are buried in the pebbles and sand, you lose the "Big Eye" perspective required to navigate change.
"Nostalgia is not a strategy," as Mark Carney famously said. Similarly, "Busyness is not leadership."
Making the "180 Shift"
So how do you start putting the rocks in first?
Track the Sand. For one week, track how much of your day is spent on "reactive" tasks. Be honest. Is that meeting a rock, or is it just more sand?
Define Your Three Rocks. Every Monday morning, identify the three things you need to do to make the biggest impact on your organization’s culture or growth. These are non-negotiable.
Protect the Space: Schedule your "Rock Time" first. Don't wait for a gap to appear in your calendar—it won't. Create the gap by placing the big stones before the sand starts pouring in.
The Courage to Lead
The most effective leaders aren’t the ones who work the most hours. They are the ones with the clarity to know what truly matters and the courage to protect it.
At Big Eye Innovation, we help leaders close the capacity gap and shift from firefighting to strategic problem-solving. Ready to clear the sand? Let’s talk.
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