How Constant Availability Weakens Leadership

There was a season where I wore responsiveness like a badge of honour. Quick replies, late-night emails, and immediate voice notes. I fixed things before I was even asked twice. I genuinely believed that high accessibility for my clients and community members meant I was a strong leader. It didn't.

If you can relate, then you’ll benefit from seeing how constant availability weakens leadership.

I want to reframe this idea that fast response equals high value:

• You don't have to always respond quickly
• Busyness doesn't equal importance
• Always reachable doesn't equal supportive

I'm going to share how I failed at this miserably, how I changed, and how you can too.

How Constant Availability Weakens Leadership

1. It Trains Urgency

People feel like they can reach out to you and make things urgent to you.

For example, I had a member of my Dynamic Women community message me on Facebook (which I consider more of a personal platform) and ask about the upcoming date for our event.

This is something that goes out in the emails. It's on the website. There are many places where she could find this. Rather than giving her the quick answer ("It's on this date for your area," which also meant I needed to check which area she was in), I reminded her of where she could find that information.

While I could have done it quickly, it would still have taken time and energy from me. I didn't want it to be that me giving her the information, which she felt was urgent, but was really non-urgent, and she could have figured it out herself.

When we respond, we're training people to message us about non-urgent matters because we'll reply quickly.

This happens probably in your family as well. Have you ever had someone in the kitchen saying, "Hey, do we have sandwich meat? Do we have enough milk for the week?" They could easily open the fridge door and look. "Do we have any apples?" They could easily look in the fruit bowl.

But when we respond (because if you're anything like me, you have a mental note of everything in your fridge, how many you have, when it expires, and how many more you need), it doesn't mean you have to be the only one carrying that mental load.

It's training others that they can expect a same-hour turnaround of answering a question. Maybe a team member would stop problem-solving because they know you'll answer their question for them.

People will rise or shrink based on the level of access you provide them. When you respond instantly, you train others not to think first. We want to train people not only how to help themselves but also how to treat our time.

2. It Erodes Boundaries

When I have my phone out during family time, dinner, at the park, whatever it may be, it means I'm not mentally present. If others can text or call me during family time or maybe outside of work hours, then it means I'm not necessarily fully at work or fully with my family. I'm split between the two, and frankly, not doing well at either one.