Leaders in organizations are distracted by all the organizational crises, rapid changes, frequent turnover, and limited time that prevent making great decisions. They are consumed with workforce shortages, compliance with human resource regulations and compliance with standards, and conflicted with personal, professional, and organizational value incongruence. In addition, the life cycles of leaders are very limited, and replacements are few and often inexperienced or unprepared. Leadership teams are stuck in a three-year cycle of honeymoon – sophomore slump – rebound and then, replace and repeat. Last, leaders have lost their identity. They have titles but have lost who they are as leaders and what they should do as leaders.

Bombarded every day with new problems and crises, leaders end up being firefighters, just putting out the hottest fire of the day. They are overloaded trying to fulfill unrealistic expectations. Change happens faster than can be communicated. Leaders' attention is torn apart into multiple directions. The result is fragmented and distracted leaders who are not able to pay attention and engage and be present for their people. They are physically at the meeting, but their mind is on the hot spot fire of the day. If the leaders are firefighters who are too overwhelmed and distracted to pay attention, engage, and be present, the same will be true of the entire organization.