Staying Oriented as Things Speed Up

February 1, 2026

Reflect

In January 2009, shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia, Chesley Sullenberger lost both engines when his plane struck a flock of birds. In less than four minutes, he and his crew would need to assess the situation, rule out options, communicate clearly, and land the aircraft safely in the Hudson River.

What’s striking about that moment is not the speed of the response, but the steadiness of it.

Information was arriving quickly and from multiple directions. Alarms were sounding, air traffic control was offering alternatives, and time was compressing. None of that input was wrong, but not all of it could be acted on. The real risk was not a lack of data, but losing orientation in the flood of it.

Sullenberger later described relying on a small number of anchors he trusted deeply: his training, a clear mental model of the aircraft, and a disciplined focus on what mattered most in that moment. He did not try to process every signal or respond to every suggestion. He stayed oriented long enough to make a coherent decision.

Leadership pressure often looks different, but the conditions can feel surprisingly similar. As things speed up, inputs multiply, expectations stack, and requests arrive faster than they can be resolved. The danger is not speed itself, but what happens when leaders begin reacting to what is loudest rather than navigating from a clear internal reference point.

Staying oriented is not about slowing down or doing less. It is about maintaining coherence when everything around you is moving at once.

Anchor

What distinguishes leaders who remain coherent under pressure is not how much information they can absorb, but what they choose to orient from before they respond.

As complexity increases, many leaders begin responding directly to what arrives. The loudest input, the most recent request, or the issue framed as urgent quietly becomes the reference point. Decisions still get made, but orientation happens reactively rather than intentionally.

Leaders who stay oriented do something different. They establish their reference points first, then decide what deserves a response. That reference point might be a short list of priorities, a clear sense of what matters in this phase, or a principle they have already decided not to violate, even when pressure is high.

This is the shift. Leadership coherence does not come from managing inputs better. It comes from being clear about what you are orienting from so speed and volume do not determine direction on your behalf.

When that reference point is explicit, leaders can move quickly without drifting. When it isn’t, even strong leaders can find themselves busy, responsive, and slowly pulled off course.

Momentum

Orientation only works when the reference point is clear.

A reference point is not a task list or a set of abstract values. It is the lens you choose to decide from when everything is coming at you at once. It answers a simple question: What am I using to determine what deserves my attention right now?

That reference point can change by season. It might reflect the phase you are in, building, stabilizing, or repositioning. It might be a small set of outcomes that need to hold steady, or a principle you have already decided not to compromise under pressure. You can think of it as a guiding star for this moment, not a permanent north.

Here are two ways to work with it this week.

1. Name your reference point before you respond
At the start of one busy day, write a single sentence that defines the lens you want to orient from. As requests and inputs arrive, pause long enough to ask whether your response is consistent with that reference point before deciding how to engage.

2. Notice what is quietly pulling you
Loss of orientation rarely feels dramatic. It happens through small, almost invisible shifts in attention.

Once this week, notice where your focus is being pulled without a deliberate choice. Ask whether that pull aligns with the reference point you named earlier, or whether it is simply responding to what arrived first, loudest, or most insistently.

Leaders who stay oriented do not react less. They decide what they are orienting from, and they let that choice quietly guide how they move through complexity.

Next week: Choosing the Path You’re Actually On What becomes visible when you look at where your time and attention have actually gone.

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