Always On, Never Off

• If your phone owns your attention, it owns your leadership. Constant connection erodes clarity and presence.

• Leaders are “tethered,” not just busy. The noise is so constant most don’t realise how loud it is until it stops.

• The Emotional Tsunami drains capacity. Other people’s urgency fragments focus, energy, and decision-making.

• Biology works against constant connection. Attention residue, cortisol load, and burnout risk weaken judgement.

• Leaders need deep focus and real recovery. Without detachment, strategic thinking collapses.

• Two wellness dimensions matter most. Sustainable practices and resilience/adaptability enable strategic, not reactive, leadership.

• Boundaries amplify effectiveness. Defined availability, protected thinking time, and shutdown rituals improve performance.

• Your phone is uniquely disruptive. Even silent and face-down, it reduces cognitive capacity and hinders true recovery.

“If your phone owns you, your leadership isn’t your own.”

Let that sit for a moment. Because for many leaders today, it’s not just true … it’s the reality that’s shaping their every decision.

I’m not talking about being busy. I’m talking about being tethered.

When I run workshops for school leaders, I often start with a small request. I ask everyone to turn their phones off. Not on silent. Not face-down on the desk. Off. Completely.

I reassure them, “Don’t worry, we’ll turn them back on at morning tea.”

Every time, the sequence is the same. A few nervous laughs. Someone checks the clock. One or two people send quick messages: “I’ll be out of contact for the next hour.”

Then … the buzzing stops. What happens next is almost physical. Shoulders drop. People start looking at each other. Conversations deepen.

It’s as if the air pressure in the room has changed. And in that moment, we’ve uncovered the problem — most of us didn’t realise how loud the noise was until it stopped.

In the Professional Wellness Program, we call this the Emotional Tsunami. It’s the constant flood of other people’s urgency, emotions, and expectations — crashing into your mental space all day, every day.

When you’re “always on,” you’re not choosing what gets your attention — everyone else is. Your time is no longer your own. Your priorities are no longer your own. Your mental clarity is constantly fragmented. And if you can’t switch off, you cannot lead with perspective.

Here’s the science.

Attention residue: Sophie Leroy’s research in 2009 proved that when you switch tasks — even briefly — part of your mind stays stuck to the last task. That’s attention residue. If you check a quick message mid-task, your brain carries that residue into what you were doing next. Multiply that by dozens of “quick checks” a day, and your leadership thinking is like trying to sprint with ankle weights.

Physiological load: Neuroscientists like Bruce McEwen and Robert Sapolsky have mapped what happens when cortisol — the stress hormone — stays high for too long. Chronic digital connection keeps that system activated. Over time, this erodes memory, slows decision-making, and makes it harder to regulate emotions — the very things leaders rely on.

Burnout risk: Christina Maslach’s burnout model shows that exhaustion is the first crack in the system. Without genuine downtime, emotional exhaustion sets in faster — and with it comes cynicism, withdrawal, and poor judgment.

This isn’t weakness. It’s biology. And you can’t outwork it.

“If you can’t step away, you can’t step up.”

Why leaders are especially vulnerable

Here’s why this hits leaders harder. Leadership demands judgement, perspective, and presence — and those only thrive with periods of deep focus and genuine recovery.

When your evenings, weekends, and even family time are interrupted by “just one quick email,” you’re not recharging — you’re staying on call.

The ACU Principal Health & Wellbeing Survey shows principals in Australia are experiencing record levels of “always on” stress load — with spikes in after-hours communication demands and a decline in psychological detachment. Those leaders report significantly higher fatigue, lower job satisfaction, and reduced capacity for strategic thinking.

The two dimensions at play

To move from “always on” to “strategically on,” we strengthen two Dimensions of Professional Wellness:

1. Sustainable Practices – Building rhythms that give you real off-time and protect your energy cycles. Not random recovery, but deliberate and regular restoration.
2. Resilience & Adaptability – The ability to engage fully when it matters, and disengage fully when it doesn’t. This isn’t about being less committed — it’s about protecting the fuel that makes your commitment possible.

Story – Emma’s turnaround

Let me tell you about Emma — not her real name — a principal of a large secondary school. She told me, “Lee, I’m answering emails at 10pm so I don’t drown at 8am.”

We didn’t start with cutting back her email. We started with boundaries that fit her role and context.

• Availability windows — Her team knew exactly when they’d get a quick response, and when she was in deep work.
• Protected thinking time — Two 90-minute blocks a week, phone in another room, admin gatekeeping interruptions.
• A shutdown ritual — At 5:15, she wrote a one-line intention for tomorrow, closed her laptop, and put her phone in a drawer for 90 minutes.

Three weeks later she told me: “I’m making better calls because I’m actually thinking again.”

That’s Sustainable Practices and Resilience working together.

“Boundaries aren’t a sign you care less — they’re what allow you to care more.”

Why the phone is different

Here’s the thing — interruptions have always existed. But your phone is different. It’s a standing invitation to be interrupted.

Studies show the mere presence of your own smartphone — even face-down and silent — reduces available cognitive capacity. Your brain allocates energy to not checking it. That’s why you feel mentally drained after a day of having it beside you.

And those “just a quick check before bed” moments? Research shows that work-related smartphone use at night reduces your ability to mentally detach from work. That’s linked to poorer sleep, higher next-day fatigue, and lower emotional regulation.

Recovery isn’t an indulgence. It’s leadership infrastructure.

Your 3-part reset

Design the off-switch

• Move the phone out of sight in deep work or meetings. Out of the room beats face-down on the desk.
• Create micro-sabbaticals — short blocks each day with no notifications at all.
• Use a shutdown ritual: last scan, one-line intention, then store the phone away.

Renegotiate reachability

• Publish your availability windows.
• Have one clear urgent channel, not five.
• Use “message received” responses without instant fixing.

Recover like it’s your job

• Protect evenings from work talk and screens.
• Add mastery or relaxation activities weekly — the research shows these improve focus and resilience.

Story – The morning tea reveal

Back in the workshop, morning tea arrives. We turn the phones back on. Buzzing, pings, missed calls. A couple of faces tense up. Someone says quietly, “Here we go.”

But then we look at what’s come in. Most could wait. The urgent items? Someone else had handled them, or they could be resolved in minutes.

The lesson? The cost of constant reachability isn’t just time — it’s the loss of the clear, strategic mind you lead with.

Final challenge

This week, try the workshop experiment. First meeting of the day — phones out of the room. Notice how the conversation changes. Then choose one boundary to keep:

• Phone out of sight during deep work
• Clear availability windows
• 90-minute evening device pause

And tell your team why you’re doing it. Leaders don’t just set boundaries — they normalise them.

“If you want to lead at your best, you can’t be owned by your phone.”

If you’d like to explore how the Professional Wellness Program can help your leadership team embed these practices, book an exploration session or message me to explore possibilities.