During the first four months of this year, I was very focused on a new business playbook to front-load my client creation for 2026. That focus was partly driven by fear. The relative calm of late 2025 felt fleeting – who knows what is right around the corner. I wanted to secure some new work before the bottom fell out of the economy. Then, when the Strait of Hormuz closed, that fear tightened its grip, and I doubled down on my efforts. 

Very early in the year, there were clear signals that this playbook was critically flawed. While I put a lot of work into 3-4 new business initiatives, I had a several-month run where every proposal resulted in a no. 

How did I miss those signals? Why didn’t I pivot sooner?

Distraction, misdirection, and fear.

When change comes in waves from different directions, and we can’t control its pace, it’s like being on a nonstop teacup ride at full speed. That’s not a great environment for executive decision-making.

A month ago, I wrote about waiting for the fog to clear, but I keep bumping into a sharper version of the same problem: the macro signals, the newsfeed, and the popular online discussion topics are distracting me from the work of leading my business. When I try to “keep up on things,” it leads me off into blind alleys. 

For example, I can get caught up in the energy, news coverage, and attention surrounding the midterm elections, Supreme Court decisions, and the drama around the candidates. How do I keep current on important issues like that without getting distracted from the subtler signals my business is sending me? 

Here are a few that clients mentioned in the last couple of weeks.

• Deals closing more slowly. Potential clients are having a hard time making decisions (because of the noise); prospects need to be led now more than ever. 
• Folks are checked out. Maybe it’s team members, maybe it’s clients or vendors, but we’ve seen it. Folks are missing meetings, not replying to emails, generally unreliable, and inattentive. As a leader, how do I engage these folks?
• The Gen-Z stare (which is not limited to that age cohort) is a way of saying, “I don’t know how to process what you are telling me, and I don’t want to get in trouble or take a risk, so I’ll just wait…” Can I slow down and figure out where they are and what they are thinking so we can move forward together?

What is your business telling you that’s being drowned out by narratives that are pushed into your awareness? What is capturing your attention that isn’t serving you?

If this resonates, hit reply and let me know what changes you are making.