Leading with Flow: Restoring Energy, Clarity & Purpose
Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi: Flow - Optimal Performance from Effortless Attending
“The best moments in our lives are not the passive, receptive, relaxing times... The best moments usually occur if a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”
— Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
From Scattered to Centred
If you’ve ever reached the end of the day feeling like you were busy but got nothing important done, you’re not alone.
As leaders, especially in regional and small business contexts, is constantly switching roles: decision-maker, community voice, mentor, strategist, and sometimes emotional support person. We bounce between meetings, messages, admin, and caretaking responsibilities—rarely with enough time to focus deeply or recover fully.
This constant mental toggling doesn’t just drain your energy. It fractures your attention, fragments your sense of purpose, and slowly chips away at your creative spark.
So what’s the antidote?
It isn’t more productivity hacks.
From my life experience, the answer is finding some time for a session with flow.
Flow: The Leadership Advantage You Can’t Ignore
Flow, as defined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, is the mental state in which we feel our best and perform our best. It occurs when we’re deeply immersed in something challenging yet meaningful, using our skills at their best capacity, without distraction or doubt.
Contrary to hustle culture, flow doesn’t happen under constant pressure or stress. It happens when three things align:
A clear goal or challenge
A belief that you have the skills to meet it
A meaningful reason to engage
When those conditions are present, time stretches. Focus sharpens. Creativity returns. And you feel not just productive, but alive. We have all had the experience of suddenly realising we have not had a break or even a drink for 3 or 4 hours, yet feel more refreshed and alive than we did when we got up in the morning. It may not happen often but it does happen to us all, this is Flow.
What Blocks Flow? The Hidden Costs of Fragmentation
For many professionals, especially those in mid-career leadership or regional roles, fragmentation is the biggest barrier to flow. Some common signs include:
Decision fatigue or constant mental clutter
Feeling disconnected from the “why” behind your work
Multitasking that leaves everything half-finished
Physical and emotional fatigue despite ongoing busyness
A sense of guilt when you rest—even though you're exhausted
You’re not failing. You’re simply operating in an environment that rewards reactivity and punishes deep focus.
Getting Back to Flow: Three Paths to Realignment
Path 1. Map Your Energy (Not Just Your Time)
Instead of obsessing over time management, start noticing when your energy peaks and drops. What times of day do you naturally feel alert or inspired? What drains you fast?
Try tracking your energy for a few days. Then, realign your schedule so your most important work happens during your energy highs.
Reflection or Journaling Question:
What drains your energy that could be eliminated or delegated—even in small ways?
Path 2. Lead from Your Strengths
Flow is most accessible when we use our innate strengths. These are not just skills, but the things you do effortlessly and enjoy—even when they challenge you.
If you don’t know your top strengths yet, consider Positive Psychology tools like VIAStrengths Survey or Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment as a starting point. But chances are, you already have an instinct for what lights you up.
Ask yourself:
When do I feel most like myself?
What do people consistently appreciate about how I participate or lead?
Where do I lose track of time?
When you can align your day-to-day work with your core strengths, resistance drops—and energy returns.
Path 3. Create Systems That Protect Your Focus
Flow requires focus-friendly systems, even if your life is full. This could include:
Scheduling 90-minute deep-work blocks for strategy or creative projects
Using apps like Asana, Notion or Trello to reduce task overwhelm
Turning off notifications for at least 2–3 hours a day
Starting your day with one “flow-first” task instead of checking email
If you work in a high-demand role, even one protected hour per week to focus deeply can re-anchor your sense of purpose.
Reflection or Journaling Question:
What boundaries could you set to honour your need for focus—include how to action without guilt?
Flow in Real Life: It Doesn’t Have to Be Perfect
Let’s be real: Life is rarely calm or consistent. Especially for leaders who wear multiple hats or live in remote communities where they are highly visible, it can feel like there’s never enough time or space to enter a flow state.
But flow isn’t just for uninterrupted afternoons or creative retreats. You can find it:
In meaningful problem-solving conversations
While cooking, walking in nature or swimming laps
During short bursts of writing, visioning, or crafting
You don’t need hours of quiet. You need to hold the intention—and to give yourself permission to take that time for yourself.
Flow Is Leadership with Soul
Flow isn’t about escape—it’s about integration. It connects your skills to your purpose, your actions to your values.
And in a world that often feels fast, reactive, and noisy, leading from flow is a radical act of self-trust and service. Because when you’re in flow:
You make better decisions
You model sustainable leadership
You feel more connected to the people and outcomes that matter
Reflection or Journaling Question:
What is one shift—however small—you could make this week to protect your energy and invite more flow into your work or life schedule?
I hope these articles are providing an opportunity to reflect and refine some of your approaches, an opportunity to tweak your program with small manageable changes that bring you more of what you want out of work and life.
I always feel completely re-energised after a couple of hours in the flow state, I may have got a huge piece of work done but feel enlivened with more energy that I felt before I started.
Please comment if you get a chance to give it a go, what were your experiences, did you find your feelings became re-centred and your focus less scattered?
References and Resources
If you are interested in learning more about Mihaly Cziksentmihalyi and his work defining Flow, you may like: