Every day is different behind the walls of corporate America, but sometimes the same actions end up on autopilot mode. Depth requires agency. You can’t go deeper without the capacity to pause, question, and choose differently. For instance, when you are asked to add topics to the weekly team standup agenda, your actions might default to a general discussion outline. Before the week starts, pause and decide whether it should exist and what the impact would be if it didn’t. This surfaces the right topics to address and make a decision on.
underestimating the decisions you make daily
Not all workplace pressure is the same, and it can vary across matrixed environments. In this article, we introduced strategic debt, which compounds when leaders shift their focus to higher-priority actions. The trade-off is clear, but it impacts other actions that get buried, while important to the wider strategy, sometimes they fall off course. And the cost of that inaction is absorbed by someone else on the team.
Example: A leader says process improvement can wait until after a new product launch. New timelines and risks are published. Tracking becomes the priority while the pause is on bug fixes for the product that stalled due to a few system glitches.
In contrast, with autopilot off, the team redistributes work and fills gaps. This protects all timelines, keeps work moving, and prevents extra work after launch.
By shifting from autopilot to intentional actions, we stop absorbing urgency. This transition sets the foundation for managing the invisible load. Additionally, strategic debt is avoided, and agency is not impacted.
intention
You have to be prepared for what’s next and ensure you have all the ingredients needed to fulfill organizational strategies. When you show up with intention, then the invisible load that creates burnout and accumulates over time starts to reduce the backlog. Rather than delay decisions that bottleneck team B, build flexibility into the fold so that the additional brainpower, follow-ups, and timelines can achieve better outcomes. Momentum is protected for both team A and team B.
real work
Every day is different because leaders must pivot. When this happens, someone absorbs what can’t be missed, fills gaps, and stabilizes complexity. Teamwork is making decisions and doing the real work to keep moving.
In the busyness of your day, meeting prep can be missed, leaving tomorrow’s call without an agenda. This is where technology becomes a catalyst for agency, not a replacement for it. To use AI tools [e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, Claude] effectively, you can’t stay on autopilot. You have to structure information, clarify priorities, and define outcomes before the tool can help. When data and information are structured to highlight priorities, the team can step in seamlessly. Creating an agile environment that adapts to technology reduces complexity.
This matters because when you adapt and adopt, then the real work keeps moving forward. The team can revisit the last meeting and ask Copilot to create a summary, list actions, and draft the suggested agenda for the next meeting.
pattern behind the problem
Many leaders hold significant authority but operate with low agency because their day is filled with back-to-back meetings. More resources or technology may fill the gaps, but operational delay is at risk. When leaders don’t have enough time to respond to emails, Slack or Teams pings, their autopilot response is “I will come back to you.” No one can take action or move forward if timely, unambiguous responses feed the operating model.
Intentional action replaces cognitively passive patterns. Leadership decisions get outsourced, but critical information is missing to meet project deadlines. This creates invisible bottlenecks when automation isn’t integrated into the models, leading to missed opportunities to improve operational efficiency.
avoid autopilot mode
Our brains are in constant shuffle, between context shifting and reorganizing the day to accommodate new deliverables. When you are stretched beyond capacity, you risk falling short of a job well done. This is not only about setting boundaries, but about turning autopilot off. Ask questions with intention, rather than silently trying to reschedule the meeting that never happened because another one got added to the calendar.
This is also about system failure, information architecture gap, or missed automation opportunities. Shift your mindset to spot patterns and redistribute work. This leads to balance, ownership, and greater influence in delivering results.
the reframe
When the weight of the work is approached together, you can flag the risks, align on the actions, make informed decisions, protect cognitive bandwidth, and design better outcomes with the team. Leadership objectives get the support they need without substituting for ownership of the workstreams that get pushed back. This naturally shapes outcomes, and work gets done when autopilot is turned off.
Next time you pivot, flag the risk instead of silently fixing a missed action. Redirect and automate, inviting innovation through a new way of working.
Here you say, “We have two paths. Which should we take?” To avoid delays, you add, “I will proceed by Wednesday unless I hear otherwise.” This isn’t pushback or a redirect of ownership. You clarify trade-offs and specify a next step. The decisions and way forward remain visible, and strategic debt does not grow.
human agency fundamentals
Leaders can have high frequency and low agency, and vice versa. For instance, when spirits are high and gratitude immense, a leader can still exhibit a lower capacity to choose, influence, and act. Agency shows up when leaders are present, responding to requests, and shaping outcomes. When paired with high frequency, the sky is the limit, and these are the leaders you want to follow. They are not on autopilot.
However, the agency is not in control of everything. It is control over a person’s attention, framing, and response. When you turn autopilot off, the agency naturally lets you decide how information is structured, what gets surfaced, and how to frame options to execute deliverables.
When a leader has power but low agency, they execute without questioning, escalate early, act without intention, or blame their executive assistant. Hierarchy grants permission, and low-agency leaders rely on high-agency EAs to compensate for what they avoid.
real-world examples of leaders with high frequency and agency
Calendar management: Instead of booking meetings at others’ request, they evaluate purpose, sequencing, and trade-offs before confirming.
Execution: High-performing leaders don’t rely on escalation. They are confident in their ability to diffuse situations before they escalate. They understand their responsibility to the outcome.
Meeting prep: They shape the meeting narrative, set an agenda, and anticipate decisions and risks.
Stakeholder communication: Leaders will frame messages to reduce ambiguity and clarify executive briefings.
Strategic projects: A leader with a keen eye for detail will foresee outcomes and constraints before execution begins.
start with the following questions.
Do a pulse check to gauge if you are on autopilot or optimizing your agency. Take a moment to think through these questions.
- When did I last act on autopilot rather than operating from intention?
- What parts of my role feel reactive and why?
- Where do I already exercise agency without naming it?
- What decisions do I make daily that I underestimate?
- If I slowed down by 10 percent, what would change?
behaviors
Regardless of an organization’s size, behaviors shape its culture. Don’t let systemic behavior take over when hierarchy substitutes for agency. This is where situational awareness begins to unfold when leaders exhibit high frequency and agency. To model a culture of belonging, doing the right thing, and working together toward a common purpose, start by adapting rather than waiting for the perfect system.
a new standard
Technology is allowing for new standards. You can manage our work with intention and act quickly without constraints. When you reframe how you operate, you can help shift the mindset that turns off the team’s autopilot. Stop being complacent and reactive, don’t absorb the urgency created by avoidance, and call out delays caused by attention deficit.
Designing systems that reveal decisions, timing, and impact makes your work sustainable and visible. Protecting your agency lets you change the system without carrying its weight alone and helps you avoid falling back on autopilot.
learn how you can elevate your agency
Try this prompt: You are a masterclass executive assistant coach, and mentor with deep expertise in AI-augmented workflows. I need your help learning about elevating my human agency so I can deepen my thought process in my day-to-day operations, supporting my executive and team.
Break this topic into a structured 5-day syllabus where I spend exactly 15 minutes each day completing the lesson. Start with fundamentals and progress to advanced concepts.
For each lesson:
- Explain the concept clearly and concisely.
- Use real-world executive assistant examples.
- Ask me five Socratic-style questions to assess and deepen my understanding.
- Give me one short exercise or experiment to apply what I learned in my actual EA role.
Before starting the next lesson, ask if I need clarification. If yes, rephrase the explanation with hints to bridge my understanding After each lesson, include a mini review quiz to gauge my understanding. End each day by encouraging me to reflect on what I’ve learned and suggesting specific ways to apply this to my executive assistant role.
