If your team is reactive, if they are overwhelmed, if they are operating as if everything is urgent, it doesn't have to stay that way. But what you need to understand is it's because the business is being run in a reactive state. Whether that's you as a leader and how you're running the business, or the operating system, there is a shift in how your team responds to the way a business is being run. When you're overloaded, you're scattered, and you're juggling too many things, your team will mirror that energy. When everything feels urgent to you, everything becomes urgent to them. When you have 20 open loops on your mind, they're going to inherit all of those open loops, whether you intend for them to or not.

So a reactive team isn't just a people problem. It's not just how they are showing up, and it's not about who they are. It's about what they're reacting to. It's an issue with priorities and clarity and structure. And that's good news, because when you shift those three things, you can shift the entire culture of your business. So we're going to dig in today and talk about what actually creates a reactive team, what that says about how your business is running, and how to turn your team into a more self-sufficient team — a team that's able to lead themselves and drive results without the need for micromanagement. And ultimately, that frees you up as the business owner and lets you focus on growth.

So first, let's dig into the root cause of a reactive team. Recently, I was talking with a client who felt like everything in her business was urgent. Every project, every message, every meeting, every decision. She had way too many things on her plate. And here's what she didn't realize: her team had inherited the same problem because she was carrying too many roles, too many responsibilities, too many projects, too many things that felt like they had to be handled right now. Her team ended up operating from that exact same place.

When you show up in that way, your team isn't clear on what matters most. They don't know what can wait and what can't. Everything feels urgent, important. Everything feels like a fire. And so I told her something that I want to tell you too: a lack of clear priorities always creates urgency. When you're overwhelmed, because there are so many things to focus on, you can't get to everything proactively. And so you end up feeling like everything is urgent and you stay in a reactive state.

So before you can fix your team, before your team can become more self-sufficient, you have to look at your own bandwidth, your own priorities, your business’s priorities, and ask, “Is this really urgent?” You can also ask, “Where am I reacting instead of leading, prioritizing, or coaching?” It's worth exploring what would happen if you don't jump in, if you don't do something right away, if you let something wait to be addressed. It's worth asking, “Where is my attention best invested?”

When you can start narrowing down the number of open loops — AKA projects, priorities, things you're thinking about — you're going to immediately feel the difference. You're going to show up and lead differently, and then your team is going to feel that difference. Your clarity becomes their clarity. When you have too many priorities and projects in the works, and you're asking about different things, you're asking for updates and sharing direction, it can feel like whiplash — like you're chaotically moving from one thing to the next and then back and forth, back and forth, rather than focusing on something through to completion and then moving to the next thing.

So we really want to begin to limit the number of open loops. That’s one of the biggest problems that leads to a reactive state. Reactive teams, again, aren't about the people you hired. It’s not that it comes from bad hiring. It comes from the lack of clarity in the work environment. Most team members are becoming reactive because they're unsure what the true priorities are. Their workload is spread across too many projects. Their priorities are shifting week to week. They feel pressure to fix everything immediately. They don't fully understand what “done” or “good” looks like. They get partial direction instead of clear direction. The business feels like it's always in a rush. And you jump in too quickly — even with the best intentions — and you don't let them figure things out.

That's what creates that reactive environment. It creates a culture where the team learns to wait, to watch, to second-guess, and to lean on you instead of leading. And it's not because they don't want to lead. It's not because they aren't capable of performing better. And so THIS is what we need to fix.

Here's how.

First, understand that urgency is contagious. If you're operating from pressure and overwhelm or reactivity, your team will operate from pressure, overwhelm, and reactivity. So the first step is not about giving them new rules or new things to do. It's about shifting the internal pace of the business. And that has to start with you.

You're going to ask yourself questions — you can pull from the ones I mentioned before, or here are a few more:
“What actually needs my attention this week?”
“What can wait without consequences?”
“What can be paused temporarily?”
“What needs more breathing room?”

I want you to narrow things down because if you can boil every idea, every project, every priority down to a small list by asking, “If I could only move three things forward next week, what would matter most?” Or even better, “If I could only move ONE thing forward next week, what would matter most?”

When you narrow your own focus, you remove dozens of invisible open loops. And again, this has a huge impact on your team. When your open loops decrease, so do theirs. You have more clarity, more focus. Your pace slows down — and when the pace slows down, that doesn't mean less work gets done. Actually, the opposite is true. More gets done. This resets your entire operating system.

So that's the first step: understand that urgency is contagious and slow down the pace by narrowing your priorities.

Then I want you to stop solving problems in the moment. Most reactive teams aren't overwhelmed because the work itself is too hard — they're overwhelmed because the business is solving problems at the wrong time. Either too quickly or too late. Everything becomes a rush. You have to do it right now, or you waited too long and now everything is last-minute. But whether it's too quick or too late, everything feels like it has to be fixed.

Instead of responding to every new issue as if it needs to be handled today, shift into more grounded leadership. Ask yourself:
“What’s the real problem here?”
“What pattern is this exposing?”
“Is this actually urgent — or is this just a squeaky wheel?”
“What timeline makes sense for this?”

The timeline might not match your stress level. You might be giving it too much urgency because you feel urgent. But once you calm your system and look clearly, you'll notice many things can wait. They're not as urgent as they seemed in the moment.

You stop treating every fire as the highest priority. You stop letting urgency dictate strategy. You stop adding new projects to compensate for problems. Instead, you create space to think. And for the team, your clarity becomes an anchor. They stop spiraling into “fix-it-now” mode and start thinking ahead.

This leads to a really important leadership shift. Reactive teams obsess over adding more — more tasks, more projects, more fixes, more urgent ideas. But self-sufficient teams ask a better question. They don’t ask, “What else should we do?” They ask, “What are we ALREADY doing that we can do better?”

That shift alone can pull the whole business out of crisis mode. Because instead of stacking new work, your team improves the work and systems already happening.

From there, your team can finally settle. They simplify what’s on their plate. They break the cycle of urgency. They start to plan and prioritize the way YOU are. They step up. They take more ownership.

And here’s another critical piece: you must build ownership, not dependence.

Your team can’t become self-sufficient if you are rescuing them — even when it comes from a place of care. Because rescuing creates dependence. It creates hesitation, confusion, fear of making mistakes, and pressure on YOU to fix everything. But self-sufficient teams are built through coaching.

When you coach instead of rescue, things shift. Your team brings solutions, not just problems. You teach them how to think, not wait. They keep ownership even if you guide them — you support without taking responsibility back. You model decision-making instead of giving orders. You slow down your responses and set a calmer tone. You stop jumping in unnecessarily. You let them try. You let them struggle a little. You let them fail and learn.

You build capacity before adding complexity. You simplify first. You create stability. And that leads to a self-sufficient team.

When you lead this way, your team rises. They think ahead. They take ownership. They stop waiting for you. And you finally get to lead at the level you were meant to.

The business becomes calmer. Delivery smoother. Projects move faster. Mistakes decrease. Your role becomes clearer and lighter. You get space to think again. You get time back. You get leadership back. You get your life back. And the business stops relying on you for survival — which is the true definition of scalability.

So start small: reduce open loops. Narrow your priorities. Shift from “what else” to “what better.” Help your team focus on the future instead of the fires. Coach them toward ownership instead of rescuing them.

Your team can absolutely become self-sufficient. They can lead more. They can think more strategically. They just need the space, the clarity, and the direction to do it.

And you deserve a business that doesn't pull you into reactive mode every day — one that gives you room to think, to lead, and to enjoy what you've built.

This is how you create it.