The Hidden Costs to Leadership, Clarity, and Organizational Health

Somewhere along the way, multitasking became a badge of honor—especially in leadership circles. The ability to juggle priorities, switch contexts rapidly, and respond at all hours is often seen as a signal of capability and commitment. But the data tells a different story. Multitasking doesn’t signal performance. It compromises it.

And when your performance is compromised as a leader, so is your team’s. And your business’s.

The Cost of Context Switching: It’s Bigger Than You Think

Research from the American Psychological Association shows that cognitive switching—rapidly moving from one task to another—can reduce productivity by up to 40%. That’s not just a personal efficiency issue. It’s a compounding cost that slows decision-making, increases error rates, and contributes to cognitive fatigue across teams and organizations.

For leaders, every switch in attention doesn’t just derail personal momentum—it sends a signal to others about pace, presence, and priorities. When you’re half-present in a conversation or jumping between Slack, spreadsheets, and strategy decks, the message is clear: there’s no time to go deep.

And when there’s no depth, there’s no alignment.

Multitasking Is a Myth—And a Performance Drag

Stanford researchers have found that those who identify as frequent multitaskers perform worse on memory tasks, are more easily distracted, and retain less information over time. In other words, the very thing leaders often rely on to “stay ahead” may actually be undermining long-term strategic thinking and leadership clarity.

Why does this matter for business performance?

Because organizational health is not built on split attention. It’s built on focused decision-making, meaningful communication, and time spent on what actually drives value. Those outcomes require presence, not performance theater.

Human Performance Drives Is Performance

At D. Roth Group, we often say this: Business performance is human performance. That doesn’t mean it’s soft. It means it’s essential.

You can’t scale an idea, a department, or a company if your people are spinning—especially your leaders. When energy is spent on reactive juggling instead of intentional action, it erodes morale, muddies metrics, and creates costly downstream effects in culture, quality, and customer trust.

And it doesn’t matter if your team is going through it or if you are personally; it all affects the business.

What’s the Alternative? Focus That Fuels Results.

We coach leaders to shift from multitasking to meaningful focus—not just as a personal productivity tactic, but as a leadership posture. This isn’t about one more time-blocking hack. It’s about:

  • Clarifying what matters most (personally and organizationally)
  • Creating protected space for deep thinking and renewal
  • Modeling focus as a leadership behavior
  • Linking human clarity to business impact

This approach is part of our coaching experience, grounded in real-world leadership insights and designed to help leaders move forward with sustainable focus—not scattered effort. The process is structured, but never rigid. We meet clients where they are, guiding them to uncover what’s draining their energy, distorting their leadership, and disconnecting them from the clarity they need to lead well.

Because sustained business growth doesn’t come from doing more.
It comes from doing the right things with clarity, energy, and focus.

CEO Perspective

I’ve worked with enough leaders to know this: the ones who deliver the most consistent results aren’t the busiest. They’re the most focused. They’ve stopped confusing speed with strategy. And they’ve learned to protect their attention like they protect their revenue.

They understand that the business can’t outperform the people leading it, and they lead accordingly.

D. Roth Group
We’ll Be Here.

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