Have a Lie-in

You've probably read stuff that tries to pin down the qualities that great leaders possess – those things that make them different. One of the findings is that basically, to be a leader, you won't get much sleep. They generally hate the stuff. It’s for wimps and losers. This is in danger of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. Busyness is becoming sexy for no good reason. It's down to an adherence to a false syllogism that goes as follows:

Great Leaders don’t sleep much

I don’t sleep much

Therefore I'm a great leader.

 
The negative effect of this is a load of wannabes in junior and middle positions working very much harder than they need to do. Why is this negative I hear you say, surely this is brilliant? Well, in theory maybe, but in reality they do too much. They have initiative-itis. They start fires. There's a lot of noise and activity to no good effect – in fact to a detrimental effect. And they create a culture of presenteeism that saps the blood and drains the energy and leads to bad outcomes – languishing and burn-out for no good reason - and an inability to raise one's game when one actually needs to.

It seems to me what the world could do with is a little less busy leadership and a lot more competent administration.