A turning point for me in recent years was reading the book The Burnout Society by the philosopher Byung-Chul Han. Which made me think about the consequences of never stopping. In it, he argues that humans suffer from ‘the violence of positivity’, which arises from ‘overproduction, overachievement and overcommunication’. He states: ‘We are so overstimulated that we cannot feel or comprehend much of anything.’
As a leadership coach who has spent two decades navigating the corporate world that Han critiques, his words struck a deep chord. I can’t help but think about this whenever I’m on the train beside Lake Zurich. I marvel at the beautiful scenery and am grateful that I get to experience it every day. Yet most fellow passengers sit glued to their phones, oblivious to their surroundings.
Corporate work has long felt this way to me, too. It has become an endless pursuit of achieving more, producing more, answering more emails and developing oneself further. But for what purpose? Recognition at the end of the year? More return for shareholders? Who benefits from me sacrificing my wellbeing, health or even my sanity?
Unfortunately, it’s still not acceptable today to have moments of pure idleness. Simply being. Not achieving, developing, changing, producing, calling, planning, strategising or demanding. Just being.
If you think it is acceptable, then spend 30 minutes at your desk with your screen and phone switched off. If you can, look out of the window. Will that be accepted?
Einstein mastered doing nothing
It always reminds me of Einstein sitting peacefully on a small boat on a lake. He wasn’t checking his KPIs; he was allowing profound insight to emerge from stillness.
The Power of Simply Being: A Radical Act of Leadership We can all make a change for ourselves. We can choose to reject the constant internal demand to do more and more, to be constantly connected to the digital world, and to never have any downtime. This is an active, radical choice to find a different source of power.
But what does ‘simply being’ mean in practice for a busy leader in a world that never stops? It means cultivating radical presence and unshakeable acceptance — skills that enable you to navigate the ‘violence of positivity’ without being consumed by it. It’s about detaching from the constant internal pressure to perform and finding a deeper, unshakeable source of clarity and agency.
This is precisely what we explore in my coaching sessions. Last year, I ran a couple of webinars where participants simply sat in silence for 10 minutes at a time. It sounds like the simplest concept ever. But it was eye-opening to see how impactful, yet how difficult, this was for many participants.
One insightful quote from a participant still resonates deeply with me: ‘I realise that wellbeing is not about a fancy dinner, a spa weekend or an expensive getaway. It’s simply about taking time for myself and doing nothing. Taking time for myself, without the need to change anything about that moment.’
Your Path to Unforced Clarity And perhaps, in that stillness — that quiet rebellion against the constant noise — you will finally remember what you are truly striving for. Beyond the metrics and the demands. It is in this space that true leadership, born from authenticity and unforced clarity, begins.
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