60: What Do You Do When No One’s Watching? The Truth About Proactive Leadership

Build your own CTO Playbook at our website — the leadership platform built for the full CTO journey. Coaching, podcast, and community to help you lead with clarity, confidence, and strategic impact.

Proactivity isn’t an all-or-nothing game.



In this episode, I break down the myth that leaders are either “proactive” or “reactive” and share why even small, flickering moments of foresight can put you ahead. I get into what happens when you’re forced into reactive mode and how to inject just a bit of proactivity into those moments so they don’t derail you. I talk about the “pressure off” test, those quiet weeks when your defaults show up, and how to use them to reset your habits. I wrap up with five practical steps you can start this week to shift from constant firefighting to being seen as a steady, strategic leader.

You’ll Learn:

• The real reason proactivity isn’t a fixed leadership trait
• What a flickering light bulb can teach you about staying ahead
• Why just 5% more foresight each week changes how your team sees you
• How to inject proactive moves into high-pressure, reactive situations
• The quiet damage of coasting during “pressure off” weeks
• What the “pressure off” test reveals about your default leadership mode
• Practical ways to prepare for outages and crises before they happen
• The surprising link between military “go bags” and tech leadership readiness
• How to turn firefighting moments into long-term strategic wins
• Five simple steps to build steady, visible proactivity into your week

Timestamps:

[00:00] Introduction

[05:00] Busting the myth of proactive vs reactive leadership

[06:14] The flickering light bulb analogy for building proactivity

[07:55] Injecting proactive actions into reactive situations

[09:59] Building your leadership “go bag” for crises

[11:42] The pressure off test and why quiet weeks matter

[13:50] Using downtime to reset strategic habits

[14:56] Five steps to increase consistent proactivity

[18:45] Why small, steady choices outweigh perfection

Find more from Adam on LinkedIn and YouTube, and check out Adam's CTO coaching company Synova Tech.