Are You Accessible or Available?
Where does your value come from... your responsiveness, or your results?You’ve worked hard to be dependable. The person people can count on. The one who gets things done, answers fast, and keeps the train moving when everyone else drops the ball. That reputation probably opened a lot of doors for you. But at some point, it stopped being a strength and started becoming a setup. Because when you’re always available, you stop being strategically accessible. Accessibility and availability might sound similar, but they operate on entirely different levels of leadership and self-management. Accessibility is about intentional access — being reachable in ways that align with your capacity and priorities. Availability is about constant reach — being reachable no matter what. One is rooted in clarity. The other, in fear. Fear of letting someone down. Fear of being seen as unhelpful or replaceable. Fear of missing out on an opportunity, decision, or moment that proves your value. But over-accessibility doesn’t make you more valuable; it makes you more vulnerable. It erodes trust in your boundaries. It trains people to expect your time before they earn it. And it keeps you operating reactively, not strategically. The leaders I coach often realize that their availability became their identity. They were rewarded early in their careers for responsiveness and never recalibrated when their roles evolved. The badge of “always there” turned into a leash they didn’t notice tightening. If that sounds familiar, start here... Audit your access points (email, Slack, texts, meetings, DMs). For each one, ask:
Then implement one small shift:
Small boundaries like these don’t make you less dependable. They make your dependability sustainable. Because the goal isn’t to be available all the time. It’s to be accessible in the ways that actually matter. I'll catch you next week, Tara |