For some leaders, the language of meaning can feel imprecise — resulting in it becoming difficult to make time for exploring meaning.

Traditional leadership and senior roles reward clarity, decisiveness, and outcomes. In environments shaped by performance metrics, regulatory scrutiny, and shareholder expectations, meaning can sound like something peripheral — even extravagant... a layer added after 'the real work' has been done.

But, based on in my personal experience, and in my work with leaders I offer that meaning when properly understood, is not motivational...

It is orientational.

It shapes how judgment is exercised long before strategy is applied.

It determines what feels worth protecting, what can be compromised, and what quietly becomes non-negotiable.

The concept of 'meaning' helps to answer questions that rarely appear on agendas. Meaning quietly govern everything that follows. For example:

• What am I here to steward, not merely to manage?
• Which pressures am I prepared to absorb — and which will I no longer pass on?
• Where does integrity require restraint rather than expansion?

These are not philosophical distractions. They are what I call ingredients of 'leadership infrastructure'.

They influence how risk is held, how people are treated, and how trade-offs are made when no option is clean and easy.

And it is precisely when conditions tighten — when information is limited and the stakes are high — that orientation matters most!

I am sure you can think of examples from your own leadership experience that fit the idea that orientation is needed before action takes place. 

Without orientation, leaders may begin to substitute speed for clarity, and confidence for coherence.

The work continues, regardless...

Decisions are made.

Momentum builds.

Yet the centre of gravity drifts, and over time the leadership feels less anchored — not because competence has diminished, but because alignment has quietly eroded.

Meaning does not simplify leadership.

It steadies it.

And steadiness is what allows leaders to remain credible when certainty is unavailable.

This week, if you want to find your personal orientation amid all the noise try the following:

Set aside fifteen quiet minutes this week.
No agenda, no phone, no notes from others or before.

Write down three decisions currently on your mind.
For each, answer one question: What am I really trying to protect here?

Not the outcome.
The value beneath it — credibility, trust, growth, safety, fairness.

When you see what you’re protecting, you’ll see your orientation.
That’s where meaning lives — quietly shaping every decision that follows.

Have a great week.

Think Clearly. Lead Calmly.

— Saiyyidah

PS — This kind of orienting work — slowing down long enough to examine what is truly guiding your judgment — sits at the heart of The Thinking Leader and The Leader’s Pause. They exist to give senior leaders a place to think clearly together, without performance or urgency.