The Power Of The Pause: How Effective Leaders Drive Sustainable Change

Forbes

28-07-2025

Laurie G. Waligurski, CEO & Founder of LGW Executive Consultants, LLC.
Ever notice that the times when focused planning is needed the most are also times of the greatest chaos? Competition is high, funding is limited and customers are being negatively impacted. The teams are working overtime, exhausted and unmotivated, and there is no end in sight to the operational instability. It may sound unbelievable, but this is the perfect time to take a step back and pause.
Sounds unproductive and non-customer-focused: How can you pause when the systems are failing, customers are complaining, budgets are dwindling and deadlines are at risk? But the leadership question is: How can we afford to keep going this way? Effective leaders understand that this is the precise time to take a pause and reflect on the way they are working. The pure hope that tomorrow will be a better day is not enough to change outcomes. To truly make sustainable change, taking the time to understand how work needs to be done differently is key.
Sounds simple. So, why is it so difficult?
Three Reasons Leaders Shy Away From Reflection—And Strategies To Overcome
To proactively introduce change while operational chaos is occurring is like trying to change the tires on a car while the car is still moving. Solutions offered at this point will be Band-Aids in many cases, treating a symptom and not the entire problem. So, while there is some immediate relief, the resulting stability or customer satisfaction will be fleeting when additional or bigger problems surface.
There can also be a "spray and pray" mentality, where the support teams in the trenches continually apply fixes, hoping one will stick and resolve the issue. During these times, leadership pressure intensifies, hours increase and team emotions are high. While all individuals have positive intent, this high-pressure focus on relief from the issue can create blinders to the simple solution of pausing, taking focused time to address the root of the problem and create a sustainable resolution.
Effective leaders understand this and will both encourage the team to take a step back and provide prioritized and focused time to drive the right outcome. Pairing this decision with clear, continuous communication to the customer around how the situation is being approached and how they will be kept up to speed is key to the overall successful management of the chaos.
Prioritizing quality issue resolution alongside being transparent can grow customer trust and loyalty.
Organizations that have been in turmoil for extended periods of time can create a culture of heroes. Heroes are resources who save the day when things go poorly and are rewarded for their time in the trenches. Many hero reward systems are based on effort versus outcome, production fixes versus quality releases and immediate versus permanent solutions. In general, a hero culture is a reactive versus proactive reward system. The emphasis is on response to chaos versus planning quality solutions.
We have all been in meetings where the teams who worked all weekend to Band-Aid a bug introduced with a release receive recognition for the sacrifice of the weekend and their issue resolution. Yes, these individuals should receive recognition for their work in the heat of a release. However, when the recognition over-rotates toward rewarding those who fix issues during operational impacts or customer escalations, organizations encourage teams who step in wearing their capes to resolve high-priority issues instead of rewarding and recognizing those who plan quality into their releases, minimizing the introduction of defects into production.
Effective leaders reward this early planning or pause to focus on quality first and operational readiness of their releases.
Budget adherence is often driven by LOB funding. This funding determines what work is prioritized and where development capacity is allocated. Typically, the focus is on new feature development as opposed to a balanced allocation of capacity to new feature work, operational efficiency, automation and reduction of technical debt.
This can be remedied with a data-driven approach to prioritization, which, again, requires an upfront pause to plan and understand all aspects of the technical program and where capacity should be allocated to drive the greatest value for the overall portfolio. Effective leaders realize this and enforce relentless prioritization based on data- and value-driven outcomes.
Final Thoughts
Effective leaders leverage the power of the pause to prioritize development capacity to the highest-value work and reward teams for quality implementations and upfront planning. And when operations fail, they ensure that teams are taking the time to create sustainable solutions as opposed to immediate, Band-Aid solutions.
All three of these approaches create greater transparency throughout the organization and ultimately drive greater customer loyalty.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?