Why doing less makes you a better leader
by Andrew MurphyIntroduction
Recently I've been speaking to a lot of new leaders, and a mistake I am seeing quite often is equating productivity with the number of tasks they complete, meetings they attend, and decisions they make. Many new leaders, particularly those transitioning from individual contributor roles, fall into the trap of trying to do everything themselves. This approach stems from good intentions—wanting to demonstrate value, support the team, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. However, this "more is better" mindset often leads to diminished leadership effectiveness, team underperformance, and personal burnout. Stepping into a leadership role within the tech industry means facing responsibilities that go beyond technical oversight, requiring an entirely different skill set that includes knowing when to step back.
This article challenges the conventional wisdom that effective leadership means constant action and involvement. Instead, I'll argue that strategically doing less—focusing on fewer, higher-impact activities while intentionally stepping back from others—can dramatically improve your leadership effectiveness. By examining six key areas where less activity leads to better results, I'll provide actionable insights for both new and experienced leaders looking to maximize their impact while avoiding being caught in what one might call a "task tornado".
1. The Myth of Constant Busyness
The Misconception
As a leader, particularly one newly promoted from a technical role, you might believe that your value comes from constant activity. You feel compelled to attend every meeting, weigh in on every decision, and remain accessible to your team around the clock. Your calendar becomes a badge of honor—the fuller it is, the more important and productive you feel. You might worry that any unscheduled time signals a lack of commitment or importance to the organization, falling into the trap of feeling productive while doing easy pieces of work that aren't truly important.
The Reality
Constant busyness is often counterproductive to effective leadership. Research consistently shows that leaders who strategically protect their time and maintain open space in their schedules make better decisions, provide more thoughtful guidance to their teams, and ultimately deliver better results. When every minute is scheduled, you operate in a reactive mode, jumping from task to task without the mental space to process information deeply or think strategically about long-term challenges and opportunities.
By intentionally reducing your meeting load by 20-30%, you create the necessary space for deep thinking, careful reflection on team dynamics, and proactive planning. This unscheduled time isn't empty—it's filled with the essential cognitive work that distinguishes great leaders from merely busy ones. It allows you to step back and see patterns, connections, and strategic opportunities that remain invisible when you're constantly in the weeds, helping you channel your time into tasks that genuinely push your work forward.
See more in productivity tips by reading 5 Productivity Tips for New Engineering Managers.
2. Decision Quality Over Quantity
The Misconception
Many new leaders believe they should be involved in every decision, large and small. You might think that being consulted on all matters demonstrates your value and ensures nothing goes wrong. This approach seems logical—after all, as a leader, you're accountable for outcomes, so shouldn't you have input on everything that might affect those outcomes? This misconception aligns with the belief that leadership means having all the answers, a common fallacy among new tech leaders.
The Reality
The quality of your decisions deteriorates sharply as their quantity increases. Decision fatigue is a well-documented psychological phenomenon—each decision you make throughout the day depletes your mental energy and decreases the quality of subsequent decisions. By inserting yourself into every minor decision, you not only exhaust your decision-making capacity but also dilute your focus on the truly consequential decisions that only you can make.
Effective leaders carefully guard their decision-making bandwidth by establishing clear thresholds for when their input is required. They create decision-making frameworks that empower team members to resolve routine matters independently while escalating only those decisions that truly warrant leadership attention. This approach improves both the quality of significant decisions and the speed of routine ones, while simultaneously developing your team's decision-making muscles and recognizing that leadership decisions are not a solo activity.
See more misconceptions of leadership.
3. Delegation as a Strength, Not a Weakness
The Misconception
You might believe that delegation means shirking responsibility or burdening your team with your work. Particularly if you've been promoted due to your technical excellence, you might feel that nobody can perform certain tasks as well as you can. Some leaders fear that delegating challenging work might be perceived as laziness or disengagement, or they worry their team will resent being given additional responsibilities. This misconception is often rooted in the false belief that leadership is control.
The Reality
Strategic delegation is one of the most powerful tools for both team development and leadership effectiveness. When you thoughtfully delegate work that challenges your team members and aligns with their development goals, you create growth opportunities that benefit both the individuals and the organization. Far from being a burden, meaningful delegation signals trust and confidence in your team's capabilities.
By delegating work that others can do (even if they might initially do it less efficiently than you), you free yourself to focus on the work that only you can do as a leader—setting vision, removing obstacles, managing stakeholder relationships, and developing your people. Moreover, delegation creates redundancy and resilience in your team, reducing key person dependencies and enabling the organization to scale. Effective delegation recognizes that a command-and-control leadership style stifles creativity, curtails innovation, and undermines a sense of ownership among team members.
See more misconceptions of leadership.
4. Creating Space for Strategic Thinking
The Misconception
In the daily rush of operational demands, you might believe that strategic thinking is a luxury you can't afford. You convince yourself that you'll get to those big-picture questions once the current project is complete or during that mythical "quiet period" that never seems to arrive. Many leaders unconsciously prioritize urgent tasks over important ones, focusing on putting out fires rather than preventing them. This approach leaves you feeling productive while actually neglecting the crucial work of strategic leadership.
The Reality
Strategic thinking isn't a separate activity that happens outside your regular work—it's an essential component of effective leadership that requires dedicated time and mental space. By intentionally reducing your involvement in routine operations and creating protected time for reflection and big-picture thinking, you develop the foresight to identify emerging opportunities and challenges before they become urgent.
Leaders who carve out regular time for strategic thinking—whether through weekly reflection blocks, monthly strategy sessions, or quarterly retreats—consistently outperform those who remain perpetually trapped in tactical execution. This protected time allows you to step back from immediate concerns, connect disparate pieces of information, and envision alternative futures that might otherwise remain unexplored. Prioritizing tasks effectively means recognizing that not all work is equally valuable and having the discipline to focus on high-leverage activities.
See more in productivity tips by reading 5 Productivity Tips for New Engineering Managers.
5. Preventing Leadership Burnout
The Misconception
Many leaders, especially those early in their leadership journey, believe that sacrificing personal wellbeing for work is necessary and even admirable. You might think that working longer hours than your team, skipping breaks, and being available around the clock demonstrates commitment and sets a good example. This mindset often stems from a belief that leadership requires superhuman effort and endurance, similar to the misconception that everyone on your team should like you.
The Reality
Sustainable leadership requires sustainable practices. Research consistently shows that leader burnout not only harms the individual but cascades throughout the organization, affecting team morale, decision quality, and overall performance. By intentionally doing less—setting boundaries around your work hours, declining low-value commitments, and prioritizing recovery—you maintain the energy and perspective needed for long-term leadership effectiveness.
Leaders who model sustainable work practices by taking breaks, using vacation time, and disconnecting during off-hours typically lead teams with higher engagement, better retention, and superior results compared to those led by perpetually exhausted leaders. By doing less in terms of hours worked, you actually accomplish more in terms of sustained impact over time. This approach recognizes that avoiding multitasking and setting clear goals are essential productivity practices for leaders who want to create sustainable environments for both themselves and their teams.
See more tips about burnout in 7 tips for Engineering Managers who also have to write code now.
6. Setting a Sustainable Example
The Misconception
You might believe that leading by example means demonstrating superhuman productivity—being the first to arrive and the last to leave, responding to emails at all hours, and visibly taking on the heaviest workload. This approach seems virtuous and may even receive short-term praise from senior leaders who value visible hustle and sacrifice. This misconception relates to the belief that authority automatically equals respect.
The Reality
The behaviors you model as a leader are powerful signals that shape your team's culture and norms. When you consistently overwork, interrupt your personal time for non-emergencies, or pride yourself on multitasking during meetings, you implicitly establish these as expected behaviors for your team. This creates a culture where sustainable performance takes a backseat to performative busyness.
Effective leaders deliberately model the behaviors they want to see in their teams. By visibly prioritizing your most important work, declining low-value commitments, taking breaks to recharge, and respecting boundaries between work and personal time, you create permission for your team to do the same. This leads to a more sustainable, healthy team culture where people focus on impact rather than activity. Recognizing that feedback is not a one-way street, these leaders also create space for their teams to provide input on workload and priorities, further reinforcing a culture of sustainable high performance.
See more in productivity tips by reading 5 Productivity Tips for New Engineering Managers.
Conclusion
The paradox of leadership is that doing less often allows you to accomplish more. By strategically reducing low-value activities, empowering your team through delegation, protecting time for strategic thinking, and modeling sustainable work practices, you create the conditions for both personal leadership effectiveness and team success. This approach runs counter to the "always-on, always-busy" ethos that pervades many tech organizations, but the evidence consistently shows that leaders who have the courage to do less achieve more meaningful, sustainable results.
The shift from constant activity to strategic selectivity isn't easy. It requires overcoming deeply ingrained beliefs about productivity and value, as well as the confidence to withstand potential short-term criticism from those who equate busyness with commitment. However, for leaders willing to make this shift, the rewards are substantial—better decisions, more empowered teams, increased strategic clarity, and the personal sustainability needed for long-term leadership impact.
Effective leadership isn't about flexing your technical muscles anymore but about steering your team smoothly towards scoring goals while keeping everyone motivated and creating positive vibes for everyone, including yourself. By embracing the practice of strategically doing less, you transform from a solo rockstar to the maestro of a band, with your eyes on the prize of team success rather than personal productivity metrics.
As you reflect on your own leadership approach, consider: Where might doing less allow you and your team to achieve more?
Resources
Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz explore how managing energy, not just time, is the key to sustained high performance for individuals and organizations.
Manage Your Priorities and Energy
Will Larson (Author of "Staff Engineer: Leadership beyond the management track") discusses how to handle your own energy as a leader.
Do Something, So We Can Change It!
At Amazon, they discuss this concept by encouraging teams to recognize "two-way doors" - decisions that are reversible versus those that are not, helping leaders focus their energy on decisions that truly matter.
Climbing the Mountain of Leadership Productivity
A guide with practical steps to help you plan how to be productive and effective in your first 90 days of leadership, focusing on quality over quantity.
Make Great Decisions Quickly with TOMASP
A framework for technical leaders and managers to consistently make great decisions quickly, recognizing that our job is to make the right decision most of the time rather than attempting to control every aspect of team operations.
