Last week, I wrote about mental load and what I call reactive living – the way modern life can pull us into constantly responding to whatever feels most urgent, rather than living and working intentionally. Given the response to the article, it clearly resonated with many people, but it also got me thinking about another side of the conversation.
What happens when the person living reactively isn’t just responsible for themselves?
What happens when their way of working influences the people around them?
Over the years, I’ve seen a pattern time and time again through my coaching. Our ways of working don’t just affect our own wellbeing and performance; they naturally influence, and sometimes even define, the experience of the people around us.
When Urgency Becomes The Culture
There’s a phrase that’s used more and more in organisations today: rush culture or urgency culture. To me, it’s often the organisational version of reactive living.
It develops when constant interruptions, changing priorities, last-minute decisions and a sense that everything is urgent become the normal way of working. In reality, leaders don’t deliberately create that environment, but reactive ways of working have a ripple effect. Over time, they influence how meetings are run, how priorities are managed, how people communicate and, ultimately, how work is experienced by everyone around them.
Of course, genuine emergencies happen because businesses are rarely predictable, and some roles naturally involve responding quickly to unexpected situations. The question isn’t whether urgency ever exists, it’s whether urgency has become the default.
Seeing Both Sides Of The Picture
One of the unique aspects of my work is that I often coach both leaders and members of their teams, so I get to hear the same organisation from very different perspectives.
The leaders I work with are often under a huge amount of pressure. They’re juggling competing priorities, managing uncertainty and trying to keep everything moving, and I have a great deal of empathy for that because leadership isn’t easy.
Then I hear from the people around them.
When their line manager or leadership team operates in a reactive way, they often describe constant changes in priorities, meetings moving at the last minute, interrupted focus time, unexpected requests, and the feeling that no one quite knows how the day will unfold.
Thhis also isn’t just something I see with leaders…
I’ve coached managers who are incredibly organised and intentional, but whose own line manager worked in constant urgency mode. One client worked really hard to absorb that pressure before it reached her own team. Rather than passing the urgency straight on, she’d pause, look at the bigger picture and decide what genuinely needed to change. She understood that her leadership wasn’t just about managing work; it was also about managing the ripple effects of pressure coming from above.
I’ve seen exactly the same thing with business owners.
One client had done a fantastic job of becoming much more intentional in the way they worked. We’d introduced planning systems, protected focus time and created better ways of managing their time and energy. The difference was significant.
The challenge was that one of their clients operated in a constantly reactive way. Meetings were moved at the last minute, priorities changed unexpectedly, and urgent requests appeared with little warning. So every week there were days where even their best-laid plans could be knocked off course.
What was encouraging, though, was seeing how much easier it became for my client to hold healthy boundaries once they had a clear plan. Instead of reacting emotionally or feeling guilty, they could have a calm conversation about capacity and priorities.
“Yes, I can absolutely do that, but it means this piece of work will need to move until Thursday.”
That, to me, is the real point, because we often think improving our planning, boundaries or time management is something we do for ourselves. In reality, it’s rarely just about us.
The way we respond to pressure influences how other people experience working with us – whether that’s our team, our manager, our clients or our colleagues.
That’s why I’m so passionate about helping people become more intentional in the way they work. Better time and energy management isn’t simply a personal productivity tool. It’s one of the simplest ways to create calmer teams, healthier client relationships and better working environments for everyone involved.
Breaking The Cycle
Modern work and life are demanding, and without intentional habits, planning and simple systems, most of us naturally drift into reacting. The trouble is, reacting has a habit of creating more reacting.
Whether we’re talking about leaders, managers, business owners or entire organisations, the principle is the same. When we become more intentional in the way we work, we don’t just improve our own experience, we influence the experience of the people around us too.
Perhaps a good question that’s worth reflecting on from time to time is:
What is it actually like to work with me? Do I generally create clarity and calm, or do I unintentionally create urgency and reactivity?
Because creating a healthier culture isn’t usually about asking people to work harder; more often than not, it starts with creating better ways of working.
Kate x
Interested in learning more?
If you recognised yourself, your team or even your organisation in any of this, it’s worth remembering that reactive ways of working aren’t fixed. They’re usually the result of default habits and ways of operating that have gradually become the norm, and they can be changed.
Small shifts in how you plan, communicate and respond to pressure can have a surprisingly positive ripple effect.
If you’d like support creating healthier, more proactive ways of working for yourself, your team or your organisation, I’d love to help. You can get in touch here or email: info@katehorwood.com
