The Strategic Discipline of Disconnection

I recently returned from a family backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail. No cell service. No email. No notifications. Just miles of trail, fresh air, and the kind of quiet that’s nearly impossible to find in everyday life.

What surprised me most wasn’t what I missed; it was what I regained.

Clarity. Presence. The ability to truly listen.

And perhaps most importantly, a renewed connection with my family and with myself.

Sunset on the Appalachian Trail

As leaders, we live in a world that equates constant connectivity with effectiveness. The ability to be always on, always reachable, always aware of what’s next.

But the reality is, the very distractions we’ve normalized are costing us more than we realize, not just in our work, but in how we show up for our teams and our families.

We preach focus, alignment, and high performance, yet we spend our days pinging between meetings, emails, and notifications. We teach our teams to prioritize, but model constant reactivity. We say we value deep work and strategic thinking, but rarely create the space to engage in either.

This isn’t just about leadership performance. It’s about presence, something just as critical at home as it is in the boardroom.

The truth is, distraction is expensive. It robs us of intentionality. It dulls our ability to listen. It chips away at our relationships and prevents us from fully engaging with the people who matter most: our teams, our partners, our children.

Disconnection, on the other hand, is not a retreat from responsibility. It is a return to it, with more clarity, more awareness, and more capacity to lead.

During my time on the trail, I was reminded that leadership isn’t defined by availability. It’s defined by presence. The ability to focus deeply on what matters, to engage fully with the people we serve, and to model what it means to lead with clarity and intention.

For executive leaders and high performers, this isn’t a call to escape. It’s a challenge to lead differently. To build in time for disconnection so that when you are connected, you’re operating at your best.

Whether you’re navigating a critical decision at work or a conversation at home, the principle remains the same: you cannot lead well if you are constantly consumed.

So ask yourself, when was the last time you stepped away from distraction long enough to reconnect with what matters?