Why Every Leader Needs More Margin in Their Life

Creating Space for Resilience, Connection, and Long-Term Impact

In today’s fast-paced work environment, many leaders wear their busyness like a badge of honour. Their schedule is filled to the brim with tasks and meetings. For some, it has become a twisted status symbol of leadership!

Yet effective leadership — especially in a challenging environment — requires more than just crossing off items on a to-do list. It demands intentionality and the capacity to lead from a place of strength, resilience, and authentic presence.

A Personal Wake-Up Call

Thursday started like any other Thursday — my typical deep-work day reserved for focused work with no meetings and appointments. Except life had other plans.

By the evening, I was in the hospital because of an unexpected medical emergency and was hospitalised for a week. The doctors told me I needed a recovery period stretching at least two months!

Needless to say, this incident threw everything into chaos. I had to reschedule multiple appointments and commitments and get help to lead the classes I was teaching. Imagine trying to do so while lying on a hospital bed with multiple tubes going in and out of my body!

I could barely reschedule everything without causing an overwhelming situation later on. This made me realise that I might not have enough margin!

Reality Check: What I Often See

I have observed many managers struggling to have margin in their lives. Some common patterns include

• Being perpetually overloaded and overwhelmed.
• Having no time to think, plan, or reflect. One manager told me that her team’s processes needed rethinking, but she couldn’t find the time to do so.
• Unable to meaningfully engage with their teams. Their conversations are reduced to task-oriented check-ins or troubleshooting problems, with little room for relationship-building or providing meaningful support to their staff. One manager said he only had time to talk to his staff about work, and consequently, they dreaded when he approached them. The irony for him was his supervisor related to him similarly!
• Preferring to perform tasks personally because they are too busy to train their staff to do those tasks. “I have no time to train my support staff to do it,” said one manager, “so I do it myself and get it done faster.”

The absence of margin impacted their ability to think strategically, innovate, improve processes, or develop and motivate their team. They barely have enough time to put out fires every day, let alone have a work-life balance!

Why Margin Matters?

The margin in our lives is the space between our load and limits. They are like margins on a page, providing breathing room, creating space for the unexpected, and making everything more manageable. Without margin, even the slightest disruption can throw everything off balance. With it, we have the capacity to respond with calm, creativity, and empathy.

Building margin in a leader’s life isn’t about doing less or shirking responsibilities; it is about maximising the impact and empowerment leaders bring to their teams. With margin, leaders can

1. Think and plan.
   Margin provides the time and mental space needed for big-picture thinking, envisioning the future, planning for the long term, and making thoughtful, impactful decisions.
2. Reflect.
   Reflection is critical to growth. Margin allows leaders time to reflect, learn from their experiences, refine their approaches, and improve their effectiveness.
3. Rest and Recharge.
   Leading effectively requires mental, emotional, and physical stamina. Margin allows leaders to rest and recharge, which fuels resilience.
4. Handle the unexpected.
   Things don’t always go as planned. Whether it’s a personal emergency, a sudden shift in the operating environment or business priorities, or an unexpected crisis, having margin allows leaders to respond thoughtfully without sacrificing other priorities.
5. Build relationships.
   A leader needs to connect meaningfully with his/her people before he/she can inspire and empower them. Margin allows leaders the intentional or serendipitous space to foster that connection.

“With margin in our lives, we have the capacity to respond to disruptions with calm, creativity, and empathy.”

Creating Margin: A Deliberate Practice

Margins do not happen by chance; we must intentionally create and protect them. Here are some ways you can do so:

Prioritise Ruthlessly

The Eisenhower Matrix is a powerful tool for prioritisation, but I’ve noticed a common problem with its use. In a workshop I conducted for a global media company, nearly every participant categorised most of their tasks as “Important-Urgent”! The truth is that if everything is important, nothing is.

Leaders must ask themselves, “What are things only I can do that will make the greatest impact on the team?” Leaders avoid getting overwhelmed by ruthlessly prioritising those things and saying “no” to or delegating everything else. Having less on their plate naturally creates margins.

Empower Your Team

Authentic leadership isn’t about getting things done or being the best doer — it’s about empowering others and leveraging collective strengths.

Many managers hesitate to delegate because they feel they can do it faster or better. Yet empowering your team to make decisions or take on responsibilities builds their skills and confidence and creates space for you to focus on higher-level priorities.

Schedule “White Space” intentionally

I had a client who scheduled back-to-back meetings and had a packed daily schedule. His schedule was messed up whenever a meeting was overrun, or a task took longer than expected. Another client likes to schedule a task or a meeting whenever he finds an empty slot in his calendar, resulting in him feeling overwhelmed every day.

Consider building white space into your calendar — a few hours (depending on your needs) each week that is not used for meetings or tasks. These are not times left “unscheduled” in your calendar but scheduled and labelled for specific purposes. That way, you can protect this time like any other high-priority commitment. You can use this time for reflection, planning, recharge, relationship building, etc. For example, I schedule a “recharge time” after every coaching appointment to reflect and regain energy before the next appointment.

Leading for the Long Run

Leadership isn’t a sprint — it’s an ultra-marathon. Just as marathon runners need to pace themselves and maintain reserves, leaders need a margin to sustain their effectiveness over the long term. Your ability to lead well depends not just on what you do but on having the capacity to do it well.

Creating margin isn’t easy, especially in environments that celebrate busyness. However, for leaders who want to make a lasting impact, margin isn’t a luxury but a necessity. By intentionally creating space to rest, reflect, and respond, leaders safeguard their well-being and create an environment where their teams can flourish.

The next time someone asks about your schedule, perhaps being “not too busy” should be the real badge of honour — it might mean you are leading with wisdom rather than just intensity.

What about you?

How march margin do you have in your life?

What steps could you take to build margin in your life?

* Note:  I had a medical emergency recently and was hospitalised. This unexpected event messed with my plans and caused quite some inconveniences. This article was my reflection during my stay in the hospital.