Key Takeaways
The attention economy is driving leaders toward reactive, surface-level decision-making — and most don’t realize it’s happening. Reactive leadership feels productive but replaces strategic judgment with decision fatigue. Discernment- the ability to separate signal from noise- is now the most valuable leadership skill. Leaders who understand their own behavioral patterns can resist reactivity and lead with depth. Attention management, not charisma or vision, is what separates effective leaders in 2026.
The same dopamine loop driving teenage TikTok addiction is now showing up in the C-suite. The way leaders consume information has become dangerously superficial.
People aren’t actually reading anymore. They’re scanning headlines, getting AI-generated summaries and reacting emotionally to hot takes before they’ve actually thought through what they’re reading. And leaders are getting pulled into that same dopamine loop.
Leaders are making faster, more reactive decisions. Today’s leadership requires slowing down enough to discern what actually matters and make decisions based on depth rather than speed. Without that shift, organizations end up looking busy without actually solving the issues that matter most to their people.
The Cost of Reactive Leadership
Reactive leadership feels productive because it’s visible and constant — but visibility doesn’t equal
