The [un]common stuff that lives between strategy and execution, that teams don’t talk about.
Your first read every Wednesday morning, meant to be applied and forwarded.
I was at a cottage recently and had left my phone charger at home. I could’ve easily borrowed another one, but decided to leave it. It didn’t matter, I was at the cottage!
Then my phone hit 4% and I did what any perfectly rational adult would do...I started rationing 4% battery like it was a scarce natural resource.
Mentally, I went through five very real stages:
Stage 1: What happens if my phone dies? Charge it...now before I find out.
Stage 2: Arguing against my decision to leave it. Do I need Google Maps? What if someone needs me? What if the world ends and I don’t get a text about it?
Stage 3: Capitulating. Let it die. Maybe forever. I'll put it next to my old brick Nokia and never look at it again. What FREEDOM!
Stage 4: 1% left. Last chance to salvage this. 😰
Stage 5: Complete peace and not another thought.
Eventually, it died and almost immediately, so did my mental gymnastics.
The environment obviously mattered. It was the weekend, I was at a cottage and the stakes were low.
Still, what I reflected on later was how much attention I’d given that last 4%.
I was spending energy preserving my availability, even when there was very little reason I needed to be.
We, of course, do a version of this at work too (I know you saw this coming...stay with me!).
We:
- Stay available for every question
- Keep ourselves copied on everything
- Hold onto decisions just in case
- Respond immediately because someone might need us.
- Protect our capacity while burning through it by monitoring everything around us.
Sometimes the thing draining your capacity is the very effort to preserve it.
We’ve seen this pattern in our own data too. In our 2025 Leadership Trends Report, more than 80% of leaders defaulted to a flexible working style.
In S.P.A.R.K. terms, that means they’re more likely to be lenient with finite resources like time and energy, adapt to what other people need and keep making room, sometimes long after their own capacity is getting tight.
Our early 2026 baseline data is showing that number climbing even higher among leaders completing their S.P.A.R.K. Report.
It tells us this is still a major pressure point for organizations trying to get more ownership and decision-making closer to the work.
When middle managers keep leaning in to absorb every gap, they can unintentionally become the very thing slowing that shift down.
That’s why capacity, boundaries and delegation have become such a focus in our work with middle managers.
When leaders create more space for themselves, they also create more opportunity for the people around them to build judgment, make decisions and take ownership without everything routing back through one person.
Heading into the long weekend, I’ll leave you with the simpler version of this newsletter:
- You can step away for a bit. Even 30 minutes of pure focused work counts.
- A few things can wait.
- Most of the world will keep spinning without immediate access to you.
- Every time you create that space, you give yourself room to recharge and refocus too.
Have a wonderful long weekend ahead, and I can't wait to see you back here on Wednesday as we kick off a productive (and sustainable) fall!
Kendra
P.S. Curious about your own S.P.A.R.K. results? As an [Un]common Ground subscriber, you can take our S.P.A.R.K. Assessment here for free. Once you’ve completed it, we'll send you your full report.
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