Ben Morton argues leaders need scheduled time away from tasks to activate the brain's default-mode network, where creativity happens. Long walks, yoga, gardening, and mountains all work. Leadership requires thinking and reflection, not just doing.
So here are two questions for you to think about and act upon as a result of this episode of The Leader's Kitbag. Number one, when do you create the time and space where your focus isn't locked on to a specific task? And number two, what are your default mode network activities that enable you to come up with those brilliant ideas? Is it been on a long walk in the countryside with your dog? Yoga, gardening, or like me, being in the great outdoors and the mountains. And here's the key point: whatever those activities are, we must prioritise them and get them scheduled into our diaries. Because for the leaders amongst us, we're not just paid to do, we're paid to think, to reflect, and bring perspective. And to do that, we need to activate our default mode network.
