Impulse vs. Intent:

How Black Friday Thinking Sabotages Strategic Leadership

Reading time: 5 minutes

Introduction

We’ve just passed Black Friday—a time when consumers rush for deals, often driven by impulse rather than intention. This annual commercial phenomenon embodies a mindset that prioritizes quick wins, instant rewards, and reactive decisions. For managers, it serves as a vivid metaphor for the risks of adopting a similar “Black Friday mentality” in leadership.

In management, focusing solely on short-term gains can create a cycle of constant urgency, pushing long-term value creation and strategic thinking to the sidelines. Leaders prioritizing immediate results and responding primarily to external pressures often miss valuable opportunities to foster growth, resilience, and sustainable success within their teams and organizations.

A true leadership mindset stands in stark contrast to this quick-win drive. Instead, it champions intentional decision-making that values inner fulfilment, patience, and a long-term vision over instant gratification. By examining the difference between these two mentalities—one reactive, the other proactive—managers can better appreciate the significance of thoughtful, purpose-driven leadership. This article explores how expanding one’s approach from a reactive, impulse-driven mindset to intentional, mindful growth can transform not only personal choices but also organizational success. Coaching aligns seamlessly with these objectives, as it nurtures the same values and cultivates lasting benefits.

1. Immediate Gratification vs. Long-Term Growth 

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Strategic Patience

In leadership, there’s a tendency to prioritize actions that yield fast, visible results. This "quick-win" mentality pushing leaders to “catch the lowest hanging fruits” often drives leaders to make decisions that deliver immediate payoffs without fully considering their long-term impact. Of course, nobody asks leaders to sacrifice the long-term perspective, as well as nobody says the low-hanging fruits are not urgent. 

But very often, when certain things get emphasized and leaders start matching the thriftiness of their vision with less and less time allocated to the more strategic actions, they will enter the Black Friday mentality without even knowing. When leaders get to operate in this mode, they may lose sight of broader objectives and miss out on creating sustained value.

Take, for example, Jordan, a manager in finance. Facing pressure to reduce costs in the current quarter, Jordan is cutting training budgets across departments, reasoning that this will generate immediate savings. While the short-term cost reduction is measurable and appreciated by senior leadership, it quickly backfires. The lack of ongoing training lowers team performance and engagement, and employees begin to feel unsupported in their roles, ultimately leading to higher turnover and increased hiring costs. Jordan’s focus on immediate savings ends up costing the organization more in the long run.

Setting oneself up for success in a coaching journey requires a fundamental shift from immediate gratification to long-term growth. For many managers, this means learning to prioritize strategic patience over quick wins, embracing the idea that sustainable improvement often develops incrementally. In coaching, managers are guided to reframe their understanding of success—not as a series of rapid achievements but as steady, purposeful progress that strengthens both their leadership and their teams over time. This transition challenges leaders to think beyond the current quarter and instead cultivate skills, perspectives, and habits that will pay off continuously in the future.

2. Scarcity vs. Abundance Mindset

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Collaborative Growth

The scarcity-driven mindset of Black Friday operates on urgency and competition, where people scramble to seize a limited opportunity before it’s gone. This approach creates a “win now, or lose out” mentality, which can lead managers to adopt a similar mindset in their leadership—focused on limited resources, and individual gains within the context of short-term wins. 

While urgency and resource management are indeed valuable, when leaders consistently operate from a place of scarcity, they risk fostering a competitive atmosphere that undermines trust, collaboration and shared success.

Consider Hannah, a project manager in product development, who is constantly juggling tight deadlines and limited resources. When a new initiative arises, she focuses on securing her own team’s interests, prioritizing her department’s success over cross-functional alignment. Driven by the fear of falling behind, she tends to withhold information from other teams, viewing them as competitors for resources. While her immediate objectives are achieved, this scarcity mentality prevents her from leveraging the strengths of the broader organization, resulting in missed opportunities for finding better solutions with input from across the organization and collaborative problem-solving.

When one sets oneself on a coaching journey, they are exposed to operating from an abundance mindset. For managers like Hannah, this shift means learning to view resources, time, and even relationships through a lens of trust and collaboration, recognizing that long-term value grows when goals are approached together. In coaching, leaders learn that shared success often leads to sustainable achievements, fostering a culture where support and cooperation replace competition and scarcity. This transformation helps managers build an atmosphere where individuals and teams work toward common goals with mutual benefit.

3. External vs. Internal Fulfillment

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Purpose-Driven Leadership 

The Black Friday mentality thrives on external rewards—tangible items that in many cases symbolize success, achievement, or status. This mentality focused on acquisition and outward markers of fulfillment, can find its way into leadership when managers prioritize external validation over genuine satisfaction and purpose. Leaders caught in this mindset may define their success by metrics or titles alone, valuing visible achievements rather than those that build lasting fulfilment or drive meaningful impact.

Take Martin, a young product manager, who, to the best of his intention, is too much fixated on launching new features, eager to demonstrate his team’s ingenuity and productivity. Driven by the need to showcase results, he overlooks the importance of aligning these features with customer needs or the organization’s larger mission. Each launch brings praise from senior leadership, but soon it becomes clear that the features add little value to customers and some even complicate the user experience. By focusing solely on outward achievements, Martin’s approach sacrifices his own deeper fulfilment and purpose that comes from creating truly impactful products. And of course, Martin is disappointed or frustrated once he realizes the real outcome. 

In coaching, managers like Martin learn to shift from this external focus to finding internal fulfilment—a journey that encourages them to define success by their contributions, growth, and alignment with core values. Rather than aiming for accolades, managers in a coaching journey begin to see fulfilment as a deeper connection to themselves, the purpose they advance and the people they support. This shift enables them to lead with integrity, finding satisfaction in the process rather than only in the results.

4. Reactivity vs. Proactivity

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Purposeful Decision-Making

The Black Friday mindset thrives on reactivity, capturing attention with sudden deals and urgency that push people to act on impulse rather than thoughtful planning. In leadership, a similar reactive approach often appears when managers prioritize immediate responses to issues without taking the time to assess the broader context. This reactive style can leave leaders constantly putting out fires, feeling overwhelmed by short-term pressures rather than strategically guiding their teams.

Consider Hugo, a manager in operations, who is highly responsive to every issue that arises. His approach is to solve problems on the spot, often redirecting his team’s efforts to address the latest priority. While this might give the appearance of being hands-on and dedicated, it results in constant disruptions to workflows and diverts attention from long-term goals. His team struggles to complete projects efficiently because they are frequently pulled off-task to tackle the latest issue. Over time, Hugo’s reactivity erodes team morale and productivity, leaving his department in a perpetual cycle of crisis management.

In coaching, managers learn to develop a proactive mindset that encourages self-awareness, planning, and control over decision-making. By stepping back to assess challenges with intention and forethought, leaders learn to anticipate issues before they escalate, create strategies that align with long-term goals, and guide their teams with clarity and stability. This transition from reactivity to proactivity empowers managers to lead from a place of focus, enabling them to make decisions that drive sustainable progress rather than constant scrambling.

5. Overconsumption vs. Mindful Living

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Values-Driven Leadership

Black Friday’s emphasis on consumption equates happiness and success with the act of acquiring more. In leadership, this mindset can translate into an excessive focus on growth metrics and tangible achievements, where accumulating resources, projects, or responsibilities becomes a measure of effectiveness. Leaders caught up in this mindset may find themselves prioritizing quantity over quality, constantly seeking more without reflecting on the value or impact of their decisions.

Consider Ben, a project coordinator, who is determined to take on as many initiatives as possible to demonstrate his ability to manage multiple areas and his team’s ability to handle all of these. Fueled by a focus on volume, he eagerly commits to every new initiative that comes along, regardless of his team’s existing workload or the strategic relevance of each project. While this approach keeps his team busy and makes his project dashboard look full, it quickly leads to burnout, missed deadlines, and superficial results as his team rushes through each task to meet competing demands. In the end, the quality of work suffers, and the team’s sense of purpose and motivation diminishes.

In coaching, leaders learn the benefits of a mindful approach that encourages simplicity, quality, and alignment with core values. This shift involves focusing on what truly matters—creating meaningful, purpose-driven contributions instead of chasing after endless meaningless results. By valuing quality over quantity, leaders build a culture that emphasizes mindful choices, reduces stress, and enables their teams to work with a deeper sense of purpose.

6. External Validation vs. Self-Worth

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Leading with Authentic Confidence

Black Friday marketing often preys on people’s fear of missing out and the desire for status, driving them to make purchases as a means of external validation. In leadership, a similar focus on external validation can lead managers to base their self-worth on others’ approval or recognition rather than on their inner values and authentic achievements. This approach can create a cycle where leaders seek constant affirmation from superiors, peers, or their teams, often prioritizing appearances over genuine impact.

Consider Rachel, a manager in stakeholder relations, who is highly focused on gaining approval from senior leadership. Eager to impress, she constantly adapts her decisions to align with what she thinks her superiors will appreciate, rather than considering what might truly benefit the stakeholders she manages. This need for validation distracts her from making decisions rooted in her expertise and integrity. Over time, her team begins to sense this lack of authenticity, leading to diminished trust and a reluctance to bring new ideas forward, knowing Rachel’s choices are driven more by external impressions than by genuine value.

In coaching, leaders are guided to build their self-worth from within, developing confidence based on their skills, values, and authentic contributions rather than on external praise. This shift encourages leaders to make decisions rooted in personal integrity, fostering genuine confidence that doesn’t rely on constant validation. By embracing their unique strengths and perspectives, they inspire trust and foster a culture of authenticity.

7. Short-Term Pleasure vs. Resilience Building

Or The Black Friday Mindset vs. Developing Lasting Strength

Black Friday is built around a momentary high—a fleeting sense of satisfaction that quickly fades once the deals are over. In leadership, this mentality can push managers to focus on quick wins and immediate results rather than developing the resilience needed to sustain long-term success. Leaders who prioritize only short-term gains may avoid addressing deeper issues that, while challenging, are essential for true growth. They end up with surface-level achievements that don’t prepare their teams to handle future challenges.

Consider Tom, a Managing Director overseeing a rapidly growing business unit. Facing pressure to keep quarterly results high, he focuses on securing short-term contracts with clients to quickly boost revenue. These contracts are easy wins but come with lower margins and short renewal cycles, leaving the unit in a constant race to replace expiring deals. Tom’s approach helps meet immediate financial targets, but it doesn’t build the stability needed for sustained growth. His team spends more time closing small, quick-turnaround contracts than developing strategic relationships with high-value clients that would yield lasting benefits.

In his drive to deliver fast results, Tom overlooks the importance of organisational resilience—building a stable, long-term client base and fostering partnerships that align with the business’s strategic vision. By chasing short-term wins, he risks future growth and profitability, leaving the unit vulnerable to market fluctuations and increased competition.

In coaching, leaders learn to prioritize resilience - personal and organisational - over immediate gains, embracing the idea that sustainable success often involves long-term investment and planning. This shift helps leaders focus on enduring strategies that build a solid foundation for future growth. By developing resilience, they position their teams and organizations to handle setbacks effectively and achieve meaningful, lasting outcomes.

Closure

Coaching as a Pathway to Strategic, Contextual Leadership

Sustainable leadership isn’t about rejecting urgency or avoiding quick wins—it’s about knowing when to harness them effectively. Coaching enables leaders to discern when a “Black Friday” mindset, with its drive for immediate action, can be useful, and when a more strategic, measured approach is necessary. In the right context, acting quickly can drive results, capture timely opportunities, and energize teams. Yet, if applied in the wrong circumstances, a constant urgency for immediate results can erode long-term value and undermine deeper goals.

Through coaching, leaders gain the ability to step back, assess their context, and choose the approach that best serves their purpose. This clarity helps them avoid falling into reactive patterns, instead enabling them to balance immediate needs with strategic foresight. They become adept at navigating both quick-turn scenarios and complex, long-term objectives with confidence and intentionality.

Ultimately, coaching cultivates the wisdom to match the right mindset to the right moment, empowering leaders to build both agility and resilience in their teams. This skilful balance fosters a culture that appreciates both the value of acting decisively and the strength of a thoughtful, sustainable approach, setting the foundation for impactful, adaptable leadership.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MASTER YOUR RESILIENCE 

Master Your Resilience program accelerates your access to resilience and powerfully propels the quality of your thinking towards a strategic approach.

Whether you’re a highly skilled professional aspiring to larger personal impact, amid a career transition trying to find clarity and leave behind or have already been in your management role for several years, this program is built for you. With small group sessions of up to six managers or entrepreneurs, it’s a safe place where shared experiences help normalize common challenges and foster collective learning. You’ll not only understand your own thought processes better but also learn to observe others' thinking patterns—a key management skill.

Master Your Resilience is one of the most powerful programs for personal and professional growth. Once you gain awareness, there’s no going back. With practice, you’ll perfect your skills in emotional regulation, quieting the Saboteur voice, and strengthening your Sage. You’ll find yourself in the driver’s seat of your life and career, equipped to make decisions with clarity and resilience. You’ll build high-performance habits that stay with you over a lifetime, growing stronger with continued practice.

The program details are available HERE.

If you’d like a free review of your Saboteur profile and insights into strengthening your Sage powers, download the brochure, complete the assessment (link at the end of the brochure), and schedule a free strategy call with me.

Registrations are also open for the 2025 Master Your Resilience program. Join the interest list HERE, and I’ll follow up to guide you through the next steps.

--------------------------------------------------

Until next time, keep thriving!

Alina Florea

Your Management Performance Coach 

How can I support you?

The Manager Mindset - One-on-one coaching, designed to boost your performance AND  enhance your sense of fulfilment and satisfaction in life.

Master Your Resilience - Group coaching that helps you navigate life's challenges with greater ease and flow, empowering you to thrive through adversity.

Complimentary Strategy Call (FREE) - Let’s craft your personalized roadmap for transformation. Discover where coaching can take you in just 6 months with a free, strategic call to set your path toward success.

Summary:

This article explores how coaching equips leaders to navigate the tension between immediate results and long-term, sustainable success. By comparing the reactive, quick-win mentality often symbolized by Black Friday with the strategic mindset developed through coaching, it highlights how leaders can learn to discern when urgency serves them and when a more deliberate approach is needed. Coaching fosters resilience, self-worth, and intentional decision-making, allowing leaders to act purposefully while creating lasting value.

Key Points:

• Coaching helps leaders understand when a quick-win approach is beneficial and when strategic patience is essential.
• Leaders learn to prioritize internal fulfilment over external validation, building confidence rooted in their core values.
• Emphasizing proactive over reactive decisions, coaching enables leaders to anticipate challenges thoughtfully.
• By adopting a mindset of abundance, leaders foster collaboration and sustainable growth within their teams.
• Coaching cultivates resilience, allowing leaders to navigate setbacks while focusing on meaningful, long-term goals.