What Leaders/Managers Can Learn from Keep Sharp
Derek ran back-to-back one-on-ones from seven in the morning until his calendar broke for lunch, which he ate at his desk while approving expense reports. By the third meeting he noticed he'd already forgotten what the first person had told him about their sick parent, a detail he genuinely wanted to remember. He used to pride himself on a sharp memory for his team's lives, not just their deliverables. Walking to the parking garage that evening, he realized he couldn't recall a stretch of the day when his mind hadn't been managing someone else's problem. It wasn't alarming, just cumulatively tiring. He started parking one level further away the next week, just to force a few extra minutes of walking, and noticed the short climb gave him space to actually process what he'd heard.
The whole book, compressed
This edition works through 4 core lessons — take them one at a time, not all at once.
What's different for your conditions
Tap whichever ones sound like you. Nothing here is sent or saved — it's just for your own noticing.
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The core lessons, applied to you
Movement as part of managing well
Sitting through meetings all day is one of the more sedentary jobs available, even though it looks nothing like physical labor. Regular movement supports the blood flow and structural brain health that clear, patient decision-making draws on, and a manager's decisions affect more people than most. Walking meetings or a short loop between calls are not productivity theater; they protect the judgment a team relies on.
When back-to-back meetings leave no visible gap, and movement gets treated as something to catch up on someday.
Convert one recurring meeting a week into a walking one-on-one.
Eating well enough to lead well
Skipping lunch or grazing on whatever's in the break room is common among managers who feel guilty stepping away from their team. Steadier meals support the blood sugar stability that keeps patience and clear thinking available during a hard afternoon conversation. A manager who feels unusually short-tempered by 3 p.m. may be dealing with a missed meal more than a difficult employee.
During reorg season or performance review cycles, when meals become an afterthought squeezed between meetings.
Keep a real lunch on the calendar as its own appointment, not a gap to be filled.
Rest and connection beyond the org chart
Leaders often absorb their team's stress without anywhere to put it, mistaking constant availability for good leadership. Sleep and real relationships outside the reporting line are protective in their own right, not indulgences earned after the work is done. A manager who hasn't slept well in weeks, or talked to a peer who isn't also their responsibility, is running without two steady supports.
When a manager treats being reachable at all hours as the price of the role.
Pick one recurring peer conversation, inside or outside the company, that isn't about managing anyone.
Curiosity outside the org chart
Managing people well involves constant problem-solving, but it tends to recycle familiar patterns rather than introduce new ones. Deliberately learning something unrelated to leadership, a skill, a hobby, a subject with no application to the next review cycle, exercises different mental pathways than another management book ever will. It also gives a manager something to bring to work besides the role, which makes the role easier to hold with perspective.
For a manager, time spent on any of these four areas can feel stolen from the team. Movement and meals lose first, since neither looks like managing anyone. Rest gets sacrificed to availability, and curiosity feels indulgent when a direct report needs something right now. The honest tradeoff is remembering that a depleted manager eventually manages worse, not better, so protecting these areas is part of the job.
Name one thing, honestly
- Which of these four areas do you sacrifice first when your team needs you? - Would your team notice, or benefit, if you protected one of these areas more visibly? - Who models sustainable habits for you the way you're expected to model them for others?
Good. Now look back at the "Try this" line under whichever lesson feels most connected to what you just wrote, and treat that as this week's actual assignment — not all 4 at once.
The practices from this edition
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Run this for seven days
Pick one recurring peer conversation, inside or outside the company, that isn't about managing anyone.