The 47% problem
Why so much of
our leadership capacity
remains untapped
We’ve all heard the claim that we only use 10% of our brains, and that, with the right technique, we might somehow unlock the other 90%.
It’s a myth, of course. Neurologically inaccurate. And yet, it persists.
Not because it’s true in a literal sense, but because it points to something deeply felt: the sense that there is more available to us than we are currently accessing. More clarity. More steadiness. More range. More choice in how we respond… especially under pressure.
Emerson captured this longing precisely:
“Our chief want is for someone who will inspire us to be who we know we could be.”
For many senior public servants I work with (Directors, SES leaders) that “more” is not about ambition or advancement. It’s about capacity. The feeling that they are operating competently, even admirably, but not fully present to their own leadership.
Presence, Attention, and
the Cost of being elsewhere
This intuition is not just philosophical; it’s measurable.
Mind-wandering and the Modern Mind
In a widely cited study discussed in the Harvard Business Review, psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert found that people’s minds wander nearly 47% of their waking hours ( ‘Wandering mind not a happy mind’). Almost half our time, we are not actually present to what we are doing. We are replaying the past, rehearsing the future, or caught in an internal narrative that has little to do with the moment in front of us.
Even more striking: when our minds wander, we are typically less happy than when we are present…regardless of what we are doing.
This isn’t a failure of discipline. It’s a feature of the human mind.
Add to this what we know from habit research: a significant portion of our behaviour is driven by automatic, conditioned patterns rather than conscious choice. We act from scripts—many of them formed early, reinforced over time, and rarely examined. As Jon Kabat-Zinn has observed, we can be “awake” without truly being aware.
For leaders operating in complex systems (political environments, public scrutiny, constrained authority) this matters. Because leadership is not just what you decide. It is how you are while deciding.
The Hidden Constraint
on Senior Leadership
At senior levels, technical competence is assumed. Strategic thinking is expected. What differentiates leaders, though, is their quality of attention, especially when things appear to be going well.
Many public sector systems function, for long stretches, in what might be called ‘easy times’. The machinery runs. Crises are managed. Reforms move slowly but predictably. And in those periods something subtle can happen: Vigilance softens. Assumptions harden. Habits go unquestioned.
It is not negligence. It is human.
This is where leadership capacity is most often lost… not in moments of visible pressure, but in the long intervals between them.
Being strong in easy times
The notebook image here comes from time spent working in my woodshed. The square belonged to my grandfather. A simple tool, used to check whether thing are still true, still aligned.
The note beside it captures a familiar pattern:
“Hard times create strong people.
Strong people create easy times.
Easy times create weak people.
Weak people create hard times. ”
What matters to me is what I was thinking about as a possible way to short circuit this, the question of the potential antidote:
How do we learn to be strong before we are tested again?
For leaders, this is not about bracing for catastrophe. It’s about learning to notice the early signs. The small drifts in attention. The stories we begin to tell ourselves. The habits that narrow choice without announcing themselves.
Leadership, in this sense, is less about force, and more about staying on watch.
Awareness
Is Trainable
Awareness is practice
Presence is not a personality trait. It is a capacity. And like any capacity, it can be developed.
Through coaching, and through an embedded practice of mindfulness, leaders learn to:
Recognise habitual patterns as they arise
Interrupt automatic reactions without suppressing them
Create a small but meaningful gap between stimulus and response
Over time, this gap becomes a source of freedom. Not freedom from responsibility or pressure, but freedom within it.
Leaders often describe this as feeling “more themselves” at work. More grounded. More choiceful. More aligned with the values that brought them into public service in the first place. If you want to develop this, you may ask yourself:
Can I notice when I am reacting rather than responding?
Can I stay with discomfort long enough to learn from it?
Can I sense when an old narrative (about authority, safety, or worth) is shaping my behaviour more than the present reality?
Most leadership development focuses on adding: new tools, frameworks, capabilities.
The work I do often begins by subtracting… by helping leaders notice what is already happening beneath the surface. The habits of mind that quietly narrow choice. The internal noise that makes everything feel more effortful than it needs to be.
This is where the “unused 90%” metaphor quietly redeems itself. Not as latent brilliance waiting to be unlocked, but as available awareness waiting to be trained.
A Simple Reflection
Before reading on, pause for a moment.
Where, in your current role, do you sense unused capacity?
Not skill you need to acquire… but awareness you might reclaim?
What would become possible if you were just 5% more present in the moments that matter most?
You don’t need to answer this now. Just notice what arises.
Working With the “More”
This is the core of my work with senior public servants: helping capable leaders access the awareness they already possess; but rarely have the space or support to cultivate.
Not by escaping the system, but by learning how to stand more steadily within it.
If this resonates, and you’d like to explore what that work might look like for you, I’d welcome a conversation.
