The Story We Tell Ourselves (And Why It’s Often Wrong)

Last week, a manager vented to me about one of her team members.

“He’s just lazy,” she said. “He missed another deadline.”

A few days later, she learned what she hadn’t seen: His father had been hospitalized. He was juggling doctor visits, childcare, and late nights trying to keep up. The missed deadline wasn’t about laziness. It was about exhaustion and fear.

Nothing about the facts changed — only the story.

That gap between what we see and what we assume is where fundamental attribution error lives.

Why the 8-Hour Workday Doesn’t Work Anymore

For more than a century, productivity has been defined by one basic idea: show up and work for a set number of hours. Eight hours a day became the gold standard. It was treated as a neutral container for effort, as if all hours were equal and all minds functioned the same way throughout the day.

That model made sense in an industrial economy. Factory work depended on physical presence. The job was repetitive, and output could be measured in identical units. If someone stayed longer on the assembly line, they produced more. Time and output were tightly linked.

Talk Less. Lead Better.

A leader once told me, “I’ve explained this a dozen times. I don’t know why they still don’t get it.”

A week later, I watched him run a team meeting.

He talked for most of it.
He clarified expectations.
He answered his own questions.
He ended with, “Any questions?”

There were none.

Not because everyone understood—but because everyone had learned that questions weren’t really welcome.

No One Taught Me How to Delegate and It Nearly Broke Me

I used to think delegation was a luxury.

Something you did once your systems were perfect, your team was seasoned, and your workload was manageable. Until then? You rolled up your sleeves, stayed late, and carried the weight yourself. That’s what responsible leaders did—or so I believed.

That mindset nearly burned me out.

When I became head of a 360-student K–8 school with limited resources, I walked into an environment defined by scarcity. No admissions director. No marketing team. No instructional specialists. An overextended administrative team. A board that expected rapid academic improvement after years of stagnation.

And me—trying to hold it all together.

Real Productivity vs. Looking Busy

A few years ago, I was sitting across from a school leader who looked completely spent.

He told me, almost proudly, “I’m working from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. most days. I don’t stop moving.”

There was a pause. Then he added something quieter.

“I just don’t feel like I’m actually getting ahead.”

That sentence has stayed with me, because it names a tension so many leaders experience but rarely say out loud. We are constantly doing things, yet we’re not always making progress on the things that matter most.

This is the difference between real productivity and perceived productivity.

productivityNaphtali HoffJanuary 12, 2026Impactful Coaching & Consultingproduction, productivity, productive, busyness, trainingComment

The Lies We Tell Ourselves When Setting Goals

When we set goals, our brains tell us comforting stories.

This won’t take that long.
I’ll be more focused this year.
The interruptions will be manageable.

These thoughts feel harmless—even motivating. But they aren’t neutral. They are the product of two powerful cognitive biases that quietly undermine our goals before we ever begin: the planning fallacy and optimism bias.

Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail—and How to Make This Year Different

Every January, millions of people make the same quiet promise:

This will be the year I finally change.

Eat better. Exercise more. Be more present. Get organized. Work less. Achieve more.

And by February—sometimes sooner—most of those resolutions are gone.

This isn’t because people lack discipline or motivation. It’s because most resolutions are built on a faulty foundation.

Culture Is What You Allow

Did you ever wonder why some teams thrive while others struggle—even when they have similar talent, tools, and goals?

It’s rarely about strategy alone. It’s rarely about effort.

More often, the difference is culture—the everyday behaviors that are encouraged, ignored, or quietly tolerated.

Unlocking Your Potential: The Power of a Growth Mindset

In every workplace, you’ll find people with similar résumés, similar skill sets, and similar levels of experience. Yet some of them grow faster, adapt more smoothly, and consistently outperform expectations.

Why?

Often, it comes down to one thing: mindset.

mindsetNaphtali HoffDecember 15, 2025Impactful Coaching & Consultingmindset, growth mindset, reframing, success mindset, fixed mindsetComment

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