Thanks for sharing your observations and your post. Your insights about the importance of being intentional with regard to maintaining white space once it’s created are spot-on. Thanks Tanveer.  

Thanks for the kind words. It’s an astute observation that leaders cannot accomplish great things without paying attention to the finer points. Thanks for sharing Tom. 

When I first saw the headline, I couldn’t help but smile, a smile which grew bigger as I read your post. The reason for this is that I posted a piece on Monday where I talked about the need for preserving, if not actively incorporating, these white spaces in your day.

In the case of my piece, the inspiration came about thanks to a recent remodeling of my office space which left this blank space on my wall which I soon became consumed to fill. That is, until my wife asked me if it was really such a problem to have this white space on my wall.

I think that in part sums the issue we have with these white spaces in our work days – that for some reason, we’ve convinced ourselves that this is a problem and the surest way to address it is to fill it up with whatever task we can get our hands on.

To build on your post and mine, I would just add that while we might be aware of the importance of creating these white spaces in our day, we do have to be mindful of how quickly they can be eroded over time unless we make a deliberate practice out of scheduling these moments in our day.

For those you’d like to read my piece on this subject posted this past Monday, it’s called “Learning To Appreciate The White Spaces”.

And Mike, while I know we share the same viewpoint/understanding on various leadership issues, it was certainly delightful to see on this instance we both also happen to be reading the same page.

It is also amazing that just a few years ago we could not even comprehend these principles. Thanks for enlightening us as always!

Thanks for the kind words Ron. If we all spent less time examining others and more time assessing ourselves the world would be a better place. Have a great evening Ron.

My INTJ personality-type really likes the way you’ve promoted qualities deemed of little use in modern America’s leadership culture that seems to be all about thoughtless domination and ‘winning’ at all costs. Your well-considered critique of the benefits of self-examination is, as usual, right on the mark.

Ron