"Always Available" isn't the same as "Always Valuable."

How Your “Open Door Policy” at Work is Burning Your Out + Preventing Your Promotion

Sound familiar? You're probably nodding because you've been there too.

As a career coach, I recently worked with Linda, a new engineering leader who prided herself on being available 24/7. Her team saw her as dedicated, but she was waking up at 3 AM thinking about her endless to-do list, just like I used to when I was working as a Director managing teams and had a high-paying, high-pressure corporate career.

She was saying yes to everything. She told herself she was just curious and passionate, wanting to learn, help, and show she was a team player.

She'd been convincing herself she loved being involved in it all for months because "that's what good managers do," and she felt like saying no meant she wasn't committed enough.

But it wasn't helping her grow. It kept her scattered.

Here's what we discovered together:

- Being constantly reactive meant zero time for strategic thinking

- Her team became dependent instead of developing autonomy  

- Decision quality plummeted from chronic mental fatigue

- She was saying no to everything that actually mattered to her

I encouraged her to track not just her time, but her energy patterns across all these projects.

That changed everything. 💛

Linda discovered she was a Lion energy chronotype - someone whose brain naturally peaks between 6 AM - 12 PM but crashes hard in the afternoon. She'd been trying to do her most complex engineering problem-solving at 3 PM during her natural energy crash.

We created "deep work blocks" and communication boundaries that honored her biology, her ambitions, AND her well-being.

Then the magic happened: She forced herself to focus on one big-impact project at a time during her peak cognitive hours. She batched all the "yes" requests: the meetings, code reviews, and team check-ins for her afternoon energy dip.

She was blown away. She actually nailed the project.

Six months later, she'd been promoted.

Not only that, but her team's productivity increased, she reclaimed 2 hours daily for strategic planning, and for the first time in years, she could leave work at work and spend evenings with her partner.

Here's what really transformed her leadership:

✨ She protects her peak cognitive hours for work that actually moves the needle

✨ No more scattered energy across dozens of "urgent" but low-impact requests

✨ Complex problem-solving happens when her brain is actually capable of it

✨ Her team learned to bring their biggest challenges during her morning hours

Her exact words: *"I thought being available meant being valuable. Turns out strategic focus during my peak hours was worth more than availability during my energy crashes."

If you're reading this thinking, "But I need to be responsive," or "What if my team needs me?”

That's exactly what Linda thought, too.

Your peak cognitive hours are genetically determined. Your energy is finite. Your impact depends on protecting both.

The question isn't whether you're committed enough.

The question is: What would become possible if you stopped scattering your energy and started focusing it strategically?

This is exactly the transformation we create inside my 1:1 Coaching Program: Thriving Career. Fulfilled Life.

My 4-month private program helps ambitious professionals like you build sustainable success that gets you paid what you’re worth, regains purpose-filled work, and still gets you home in time for what matters:

✅ Discover your unique chronotype and design your ideal day around your peak performance windows (instead of fighting against them)

✅ Create a custom regulate your stress toolkit and learn how to overcome perfectionism and people pleasing that leads to over-giving in your career

✅ Map your energy drainers vs. energizers and create a customized system that protects your cognitive capacity for what matters most

✅ Create strategic workflows that align your highest-impact work with your natural peak hours, while batching low-cognitive tasks during energy dips

✅ Master the art of strategic focus without guilt, so you can say yes to what matters and no to what scatters your impact and create work life integration

Just like Linda, you'll discover that your "always on” and “open door policies” are actually energy optimization opportunities. You just need the science-backed roadmap and strategic clarity to focus on them. Book a free clarity call