I teach leaders two things that are both true, and mutually contradictory.
One: know everything as soon as possible.
Two: unplug often.
Ruh-roh. How can you do both without losing your mind or your edge?
Leadership Imperative #1: Consume Relentlessly
Since the function of leadership is to navigate the unexpected, you have to be in the business of intelligence gathering all the time.
You have to be relentless in collecting feedback in as close to real time as possible. Both internal and external to your organization.
Internally: How’s the initiative going? Is the coding team at risk of mass resignations because of perceptions of unfairness? How are we training our next generation of managers?
Externally: What will the current war mean for our supply chains and energy costs? What advances in agentic AI might force us to rethink our user interface? What does that latest climate study suggest about the location of our current headquarters?
Leadership Imperative #2: Make Time to Digest
You have to limit your exposure to the endless scroll of news and information and opinion so that your brain and nervous system don’t start glitching from overwhelm.
Which means consciously unplugging from incoming data and letting your body return to (or at least move back in the direction of) present-based awareness.
That doesn’t mean switching tabs from Slack to Insta. That’s still consuming. It means stepping away from screens entirely and letting your body and mind process what you’ve already taken in.
Consumption and Digestion Need Each Other
So which imperative wins?
I was on a Zoom call this morning with a friend in Abu Dhabi who’s watching war planes fly overhead, while missiles get shot down and bombs explode in the distance.
She told me that the UAE government shares information proactively, which makes it easier for her to step away from the news feed. She knows that if anything happens that she needs to do anything about, she’ll hear about it quickly.
Others in the current war zones who are deprived of credible, up-to-date information react with panic to every new development. They rush to stores whose aisles are empty and buy plane tickets without knowing if the airport is open.
The more in-the-know you are, the safer it feels to take a news break; to stop consuming and start digesting.
And the more you’ve digested what you’ve already consumed, the steadier you are when the next thing hits.
The Dance of Consumption and Digestion
Lissa Rankin, MD wrote this week about how we react when the news is relentlessly, systemically bad; when revelations about powerful people break trust on a societal scale.
One reaction is to learn everything we possibly can. To scroll and scroll and scroll as the algorithms dutifully feed more outrage to keep eyeballs glued.
Another reaction is to check out entirely. To choose ignorance and hope it leads to something tolerable.
Rankin reminds us that we must pendulate between healthy consumption and healthy digestion.
Consumption because we must know and understand the threat in order to deal with it.
Digestion because without it, what we’ve taken in becomes toxic, turning information into a vicious cycle of every-increasing urgency and panic.
And in the dance between the two, we find a way to hold that contradiction.
What Your Team Won’t Tell an Overwhelmed Leader
But here’s the thing most leaders miss: the hardest information to get isn’t out there in the news cycle. It’s inside your own organization.
Your Insta or YouTube feed doesn’t care what kind of mood you’re in — it just broadcasts what it’s gonna broadcast.
But the people who know how your system’s really working? Who know who’s unhappy and may quit? Who know what C-suite-promoted initiatives are sinking like a lead balloon in middle management? They’re watching you before they decide whether to speak up.
A leader who’s all consumption and no digestion is easy to spot. They’re reactive. They’re overwhelmed. And the people around them learn very quickly that this is not someone who can hear hard truths right now.
The higher you rise in leadership, the harder it gets to acquire this information, since the people who report to you (and the people who report to them) are scared to tell the truth up the ladder.
They see you more as a megaphone than a two-way radio.
But the more you’ve actually digested what you’ve consumed, and the more trustworthy your behavior, the more likely they’ll be to tell you what you need to know.
Because everything about your presence — your tone, your pace, your willingness to listen without reacting — is signaling that it’s safe to tell the truth.
Your Turn
Leadership isn’t about choosing between consumption and digestion. It’s about learning to dance between them.
What’s your strategy for managing the various firehoses of information that matter to you?
How much of what you’re consuming are you actually digesting — and how is the undigested stuff showing up in how you lead?
How much are your people not telling you — and what would they share if your presence made it safer to speak up?
These aren’t easy questions, and they’re not meant to be answered alone. If you’d like to think through what a healthier balance of consumption and digestion looks like for you and your team — or if you suspect there’s a gap between what you’re hearing and what’s really going on — let’s talk. I’m always up for that conversation. Find me at howiejacobson.com.
Transcript
As I wrote last week, the function of leadership is to navigate the unexpected. So you have to be in the business of intelligence gathering all the time. You've got to be relentless in collecting feedback and as close to real time as possible, both internal and external to your organization. Internally, how's that initiative going?
ergy costs? What advances in [:Number two, make time to digest. You've got to limit your exposure to the endless scroll of news and information and opinion so that your brain and nervous system don't start glitching from overwhelm, which means consciously unplugging from incoming data and let your body return to, or at least move back in the direction of present based awareness.
e missiles get shot down and [:She told me that the UAE government shares information proactively, which makes it easier for her to step away from the newsfeed. She knows that if anything happens that she needs to do anything about, she'll hear about it quickly. Others in the current war zones who are deprived of credible up-to-date information react with panic to every new development.
They rush to stores whose aisles are empty and buy plane tickets without knowing if the airports even open. The more in the know you are, the safer it feels to take a news break, to stop consuming and start digesting. And the more you've digested what you've already consumed, the steadier you are when the next thing hits the dance of consumption and digestion.
ust on a societal scale, one [:To choose ignorance and hopes it leads to something tolerable. Rankin reminds us that we must pendulate between healthy consumption and healthy digestion consumption because we must know and understand the threat in order to deal with it digestion. Because without it, what we've taken in becomes toxic, turning information into a vicious cycle of ever increasing urgency and panic, and in the dance between the two, we find a way to hold that contradiction.
what kind of mood you're in. [:They're watching you before they decide whether to speak up. A leader whose all consumption and no digestion is easy to spot. They're reactive, they're overwhelmed, and the people around them learn very quickly that this is not someone who can hear hard truths right now. The higher you rise up in leadership, the harder it gets to acquire this information.
Since the people who report to you and the people who report to them are scared to tell the truth up the ladder, they see you more as a megaphone than a two-way radio. But the more you've actually digested what you've consumed, and the more trustworthy your behavior, the more likely they'll be to tell you what you need to know.
, your tone, your pace, your [:What's your strategy for managing the various fire hoses of information that matter to you? How much of what you're consuming are you actually digesting? And how is the undigested stuff showing up in how you lead? How much are your people not telling you, and what would they share if your presence made it safer to speak up?
These aren't easy questions, and they're not meant to be answered alone. If you'd like to think through what a healthier balance of consumption and digestion looks like for you and your team, or if you suspect there's a gap between what you're hearing and what's really going on, let's talk. I'm always up for that conversation.
You can reach out to me at howiejacobson.com.
