The Leadership Power of the Pause

Leaders have a lot on their plate – and a lot on other minds. They have responsibilities galore and likely a full inbox. They are expected to be on point, on-the-ball, and on top of everything. Many wear busy as a badge of honor. Despite all this, and perhaps even because of it, the best leaders realize the power of the pause.

The most effective and confident leaders know that even when it seems they shouldn’t (or don’t think they have time), they need to take a deep breath...

And pause.

Five Reasons Leaders Need to Pause

Here are five reasons why the power of the pause is so important – even if it is counter-intuitive to the pressures and demands of the job.

• Pause to gain perspective. When we are in the middle of the fray, we can’t look up and out to see a bigger picture. But when we stop and pause, we can (literally and metaphorically) lift our eyes to see a different and bigger picture. And a pause might look like asking others for their perspectives too – which is often a very good use of everyone’s time.
• Pause to refresh. For many years, Coca-Cola used the tagline that it was the pause that refreshes. Maybe you need a soda or water. Maybe you need a five-minute walk. Maybe you need to sleep on a decision or next step. Pauses often help us refresh our minds and reset our attitudes – and both can be valuable to us, and to our teams too.
• Pause to reflect. The best leaders are learners. If you want to be a more effective learner, one of the best things you can do is reflect on what you have already done. Asking learning questions like “what happened?”, “what worked?”, “what didn’t?”, and “what will I do next time (or next)?” will build your knowledge and skills. But none of that happens until you pause long enough to ask yourself those (and other powerful) reflective questions.
• Pause to think. Our brains don’t multitask. If we are answering questions and making decisions in real time, we are reacting to the stimulus around us. And reacting isn’t thinking. The biggest reason we need to pause to think is to help us…
• Pause to overcome habits. As leaders, we are asked to make decisions and take actions all day long. And the largest percentage of those things we do on autopilot. We react based on our natural inclinations and learned responses - by habit. Habit is incredibly helpful to us. If we treated everything as new, we would be immobilized and accomplish little. But if we never consider any options beyond our norm, how can we expect to improve? How can we expect to adjust to changing situations? To be an effective leader in a changing and uncertain world we must be willing to flex. And until we pause long enough to consider something other than our habit, we won’t flex, we will simply repeat.

Most would agree that these outcomes are important. Most leaders would say they could use more perspective, a reset or refresh, new ideas and more. And most of those same leaders say they don’t have time.

The last point about pausing to move beyond our habits is a key idea in my new book, Flexible Leadership: Navigate Uncertainty and Lead with Confidence. This book will give you tangible and practical ways to think during your pause and get better results as a result.

A pause could mean 3 or 30 minutes. It could mean overnight or next week. A pause is a mental deep breath – which doesn’t have to run counter to your need to move projects and plans forward and solve problems and choose between options.

The power of the pause helps you do all those things more effectively.

Now that you have seen the five reasons to understand the power of the pause, I hope that you will be more willing to consider it as one of your leadership power tools.

I urge you to use the power of the pause today.