How Busy Managing Directors Put Off Difficult Decisions

In a recent LinkedIn post, Leanne Bridges discusses how a managing director’s packed schedule can conceal procrastination around difficult leadership decisions. This article examines Bridges’s observations and the advice contained in her post; it is journalistic coverage, not an article written by Bridges.

“Busy is the best hiding place
for an MD who’s procrastinating.”

Bridges describes managing directors who spend their days in meetings, answering emails, fielding questions and resolving problems brought to them by others. That activity can feel productive, she argues, while leaving more uncomfortable responsibilities untouched. The tension in her post is between visible busyness and decisions that carry personal or business risk.

When urgent work crowds out difficult conversations

According to Bridges, the delayed tasks tend to recur: addressing a team member’s conduct with customers, deciding how to respond to a manager’s pay-rise request, or telling an important customer about a price increase or a change in service. These are not necessarily tasks an MD cannot handle. In Bridges’s view, uncertainty about the outcome can make routine demands easier to accept.

“There’s just a niggle of doubt:

What if I handle it badly?
What if I make the wrong call?”

That doubt helps explain why the delay may not look like avoidance. As Bridges notes, taking on work that others bring to the MD can provide an immediate sense of progress. The harder decision, by contrast, may offer no such reassurance before it is made.

The cost of waiting

Bridges’s examples point to the people and relationships affected by inaction. A customer-facing problem may continue, a manager may remain uncertain about a pay decision, and a customer may not know about an impending change. The post does not claim that one conversation resolves every issue; rather, Bridges focuses on how postponement keeps the situation from moving forward.

Taking the first step

Bridges says the feared reaction often fails to materialize once an MD finally addresses the issue. She also observes that a problem left untouched for months can begin to shift after a single conversation. Her point is measured: the first step may not settle the whole matter, but it can replace continued delay with action.

“The thing they’ve put off for months often starts moving in one conversation.”

In Bridges’s account, the relief comes from beginning to sort out the situation, even if more work remains. Her post invites business leaders to look beyond a full calendar and consider which important conversations or decisions keep slipping behind easier, more immediate tasks.