In this episode of The Leader's Kitbag, host Ben Morton explains how constant availability harms both personal productivity and team performance. He cites Gloria Mark’s University of California, Irvine research showing that a single notification can cost 23 minutes and 15 seconds to fully refocus. Morton argues that leaders often fear turning off notifications because they worry about missing urgent requests, but this fear creates a bottleneck and trains teams to rely on the boss for answers, much like Pavlov’s dogs. By deliberately becoming unavailable—phone on silent, notifications off, working away from the desk—leaders can break this dependency, prompting team members to think for themselves, collaborate, and retrieve information independently. He proposes a concrete 60‑minute “unavailability experiment” for the week, encouraging leaders to observe what actually breaks (usually nothing) and note the upside in team autonomy. The episode closes with a brief promotion of a live, online leadership program designed for busy managers, offering practical tools, mindset shifts, and half‑day sessions to deepen the ideas discussed.
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Hi there, I'm Ben Morton, and welcome to The Leader's Kitbag, the podcast that delivers practical leadership insights in less than 10 minutes. Each episode tackles a real challenge faced by leaders and managers with simple ideas and tools you can take away and apply immediately. And because leadership doesn't happen sitting behind a desk. Many of these episodes are recorded outside whilst I'm walking and thinking. They're informal, unscripted, and straight to the point. So, wherever you are, let's get started and sharpen your leadership skills, one episode at a time.
23 minutes, 15 seconds. That's how long it takes us to refocus on what we're doing. After we've been distracted by some sort of notification on our phone or another device. That's the finding from Gloria Mark's research at the University of California, Irvine. You see, it's not about the 10 seconds it takes to quickly glance at the notification. It's about the time that it takes to fully refocus back on the task or activity you were doing before you glanced at the notification. So if you have a piece of work to do that requires your deep focus, there's a strong science-backed argument for making yourself unavailable. Phone on silent, notifications turned off. And the bit I want to focus on today is how we actually do that. Because in my experience of coaching and training leaders at all levels, being unavailable is really scary. And the very moment you start thinking about switching off or turning off all of your notifications, our brains immediately go to all of the risks and downsides of doing so. What if my boss needs me? What if the team hit a problem and they can't reach me? Yes, those fears are absolutely real, but that line of thinking is only looking at one side of the equation because there's also an upside to being unavailable that goes beyond your own productivity. It also makes your team more productive. Here's something I've noticed over the years. Without meaning to, a lot of us have trained our teams in exactly the same way that Pavlov trained his dogs. Problem arises, come to the boss, get the answer. And there are 2 main problems with that. Number one, we become the bottleneck in our own team. And number 2, we train or condition our team to stop thinking for themselves and always just come to us for the answer or solution. So if you want your team to start thinking for themselves, that cycle of got a problem, come to the boss, get the solution has to be broken somewhere. And you being unavailable is the thing that can break it in a constructive way. If you're unreachable, then the team member will think for themselves. If you're unreachable, then the team member might chat it through with another colleague. If you're unreachable and a team member needs a document or piece of information, they'll most likely find a way to get it themselves. And none of that happens if you're always just one message away from your team. So here's an experiment for you to run this week. Pick a single block of time, 60 minutes will do, And make yourself unavailable. I'm not talking about checking your emails every 20 minutes unavailable. I'm talking phone on silent or airplane mode, all notifications turned off on your phone, working away from your desk so your team can't easily interrupt or distract you. And then notice what actually breaks. Most likely, absolutely nothing. And at the same time, notice the upside. Take note of what your team can solve, achieve, or answer for themselves in your absence. That's it for this episode. As always, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. And until next time, lead on.
Before you head off, If you enjoy the ideas we explore together here on The Leader's Kitbag, and you'd like to go a little deeper, then I've created a new leadership program designed specifically for busy leaders and managers. It focuses on the practical side of leadership, the mindset, skills, and tools that help you support your people, make better decisions, and get the results you're accountable for. The programme is delivered live and online over several half-day sessions, making it practical and perfect to fit in around the day job. If that sounds useful, you can find out more details via the link in the show notes. That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll see you in the next program very soon, and until then, look after yourself and those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead.
