From Frantic to Focused
Mastering Calm in the Chaos of Leadership
👆 LISTEN TO THE RECORDING OF THIS LETTER IF YOU’RE ON THE MOVE.👆
👋 Welcome back to Live Your Opus, the newsletter where I share insights to help you achieve meaningful, sustainable success and fulfillment in life and business. I’m Janine Mathó—a healthy high-achievement expert and educator, executive coach, and author of Live Your Opus (forthcoming, 2025). Thanks for being here and for the 💚 you’ve given my letters recently.
Hi Friends!
Last week, while in London, I met with three incredible clients—executives from three companies—who all used the same word to describe how they felt: frantic. They didn’t just feel this way that day; it was a constant theme in their lives.
Sitting across from them, I could feel the weight of their busyness. They arrived rushed, on edge, and visibly exhausted. Yet, by the end of our time together—likely their only pause that week—they transformed: relaxed and composed, the hard edges of stress began to soften.
Many of us know what frantic feels like: it’s hard to be present when your mind is always racing ahead to the next thing. As Dorie Clark shares in her TED talk, The Real Reason You Feel So Busy (And What to Do About It), our modern lives impose massive constraints. The average professional attends 62 meetings per month (and that’s just two to three meetings a day). Add to that the 28 percent of our time spent responding to emails, and it’s easy to see how we become overwhelmed!
Beyond meetings and emails, we juggle daily responsibilities–keeping up with the news, fulfilling our jobs, caring for our families, and somehow trying to carve out time for self-care. But there’s another side to being busy, too. As Clark notes, our culture often equates busyness with status. This ‘busy’ feeling can be hard to let go of, even when we recognize its toll on our wellbeing.
But feeling frantic doesn’t just affect your health; it diminishes your effectiveness in whatever role you play—whether as a leader, founder, or team member. The alternative is healthy high performance: leading in a way that values results and your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
So, let’s explore a few myths that can fuel this sense of being frantic and what truths can help you cultivate balance, calm, and presence in your leadership and work—so you can achieve sustainably. And, to the three clients I met with last week…this one’s for you!
Frantic Leadership and Three Myths That Fuel It
I’ve been rereading one of my favorite books, Resonant Leadership, by Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee. In it, they call out three leadership myths that are not only untrue but keep leaders in a constant state of franticness. These are easy to extrapolate to all ambitious people. Let’s break them down:
“Smart is Enough”
The myth: If you’re smart and capable and an expert in the area you’re leading, you should be able to handle it all.
The truth: Intelligence doesn’t shield you from overwhelm. What makes a difference is emotional intelligence—and not just with others. We often think about emotional intelligence as something we use to understand and manage the emotions of those around us. But what about using emotional intelligence on yourself? A crucial part of healthy high performance is recognizing when you're approaching burnout or feeling frantic and then taking steps to regulate your emotional state.
The Opus Way: If you can’t identify and manage your emotional state, you’ll stay stuck in a cycle of frenzy, constantly moving but never present. So, yes, cultivate and apply your emotional intelligence inward. Identify habits or routines that can help you recognize your own signs of stress and franticness and address them before they spiral and affect others. Techniques like simple 1-minute breathing exercises, building 15 minutes of reflection into your morning or end-of-day routine, or checking in with yourself while exercising can shift you from frantic to calm.
“Your Mood Doesn’t Matter”
The myth: You can compartmentalize your emotions—how you feel won’t affect your performance.
The truth: Your emotional state affects not just you but your entire team or organization–and it usually follows you home. If you’re feeling frantic, that energy can spread, creating a culture of anxiety rather than focus and ultimately eroding your wellbeing and performance and, if you’re the leader, that of your team.
The Opus Way: Use your emotions as a strategic leadership asset to set the emotional tone. If you’re the leader, leading by setting the example will foster an environment where everyone can perform at their best. Even if you’re not the leader, you can create a space where calm, clarity, and renewal are the norm, not the exception.
Put your oxygen mask on first: Step back and breathe when you’re feeling frantic, and make sure you have one of the above practices to support you. Then, be intentional about the emotional energy you’re bringing into your team. Before a meeting, pause for 30 seconds to ask yourself, “How do I want to feel in this meeting? And, how do I want others to feel?” Cultivate that emotional state within and carry it with you into the meeting.
“Great Leaders Thrive on Constant Pressure”
The myth: To succeed, you must handle constant stress and pressure.
The truth: Pressure is inevitable in leadership, but thriving under constant pressure without renewal leads to power stress, making it hard to focus, be creative, or even enjoy the work. Being constantly frantic isn’t a sign of success; it’s a sign of imbalance. Continually thinking about the next thing keeps you from being fully present in the now, leading to exhaustion.
The Opus Way: Research is clear that healthy, sustainable leadership requires cycles of rest and renewal. High performance doesn’t mean relentless hustle; it means knowing when to step back, recharge, and return with focus. Rest and renewal are about more than just changing your mood. Take some bigger steps: put your phone/email away two hours before bedtime to optimize your sleep, take time to play and connect with yourself and friends, spend time outdoors without your phone, pause work on the weekends, and schedule regular time off to wander and holiday.
“Leadership can feel overwhelming, but you can't get results when you're frantic. Pause to be present, and you'll find that your impact–and that of your team–soars.” – Janine Mathó
Opus Action: Step Out of the Frantic Mindset
Here’s your action for this week: Take 15 minutes at the end of each day to reflect on your emotional state. Were you present? Did you feel frantic?
Ask yourself: What is one thing you can do to reduce the feeling of constantly rushing? Maybe it’s creating a no-meetings block, putting a buffer between meetings, stepping out for a walk midday, or practicing mindfulness before jumping to the next task.
Commit: Write down one thing you can do this week to shift from the frantic mindset and step into calm, focused leadership, bringing your emotional intelligence to the fore for yourself and those you work with.
Making the shift from frantic to focused is tough at first, but, I am sure I don’t need to tell you how much better you’ll feel inside. Take that first step! And let me know how it goes.
I’m Janine Mathó, and I am writing Live Your Opus, a book for ambitious people who want ‘more’ in their lives, careers, or businesses but sometimes struggle to get there. I publish here on Substack twice a week, on Mondays & Thursdays. The format of this letter is evolving as I write my book, so I look forward to your comments and input. Subscribe here, and now you can join hundreds of people reading my letters on LinkedIn. You can learn more about me and my work here.
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Recommended Reads:
Resonant Leadership by Richard Boyatzis & Annie McKee
Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence by Daniel Goleman
Join the Conversation:
Do you ever feel frantic? How do you manage the constant pressure to lead and keep moving? Share your experience in the comments or DM me for a chance to be featured in a future Opus Spotlight.
Until next time, be well,
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