You did not plan on becoming a firefighter.
You got promoted because your team performed. You showed up, you delivered, you earned it. And then the role changed everything. Or maybe you never got promoted at all – you’re just good enough that the work keeps finding you.
Suddenly you are in back-to-back meetings all day and doing your actual work at night. Your inbox is a second job. You are the workplace help desk. Everything is escalated to you first. Every week starts with a plan and ends with a pile of things you never got to.
You are working harder than you ever have. Putting in more hours. And somehow still falling behind.
Maybe it feels like a hamster wheel. You are running full speed and going nowhere. Or maybe it looks more like firefighting – you get one thing under control and two more catch fire behind you. Either way, the result is the same. Exhausted. Reactive. Never quite ahead.
And the harder you push, the more you have to push tomorrow.
That’s not a you problem. That’s a systems problem. And you cannot solve a systems problem with more effort.
I know because I lived the early version of it.
Seven months into my first corporate role at GSK as an Associate Scientist, I was struggling in ways I could not explain. The people around me moved through the same work effortlessly. Meanwhile, I stared at a screen with my brain about to explode, on the verge of tears, just trying to write a single report, going nowhere, burning through hours I didn’t have. And I had everything I needed right in front of me. I was pushing as hard as I could and still falling behind. This wasn’t normal.
In March 2020, my manager handed me a poor performance review. He casually mentioned that poor performers in the department don’t get on a PIP unless there’s no improvement by next year’s performance review. I knew better than to believe I had a year in an at-will state.
So I started looking for answers.
Ten months later I got diagnosed with combined-type ADHD. And everything finally made sense.
I learned that I process information differently – and that there was nothing wrong with that. My setup was incompatible with how I do things. So instead of pushing harder, I rebuilt it. One piece at a time. And I wasn’t alone. A senior director sent me a copy of a book on productivity systems. A director taught me how to work through others instead of doing it all myself. GSK gave me free in-house support and I paid over $9k out of pocket for external coaching. The investments others made in me, and the ones I paid for myself, along with systems that finally matched my way of working, are what moved me forward. Within 1 year and 8 months I went from someone leadership had written off to a trusted cross-functional leader, not because I became a different person, but because I finally had what I needed.
Ultimately, this is how I went from a struggling scientist to a people leader 3 years and 1 month into my career.
And now I can’t unsee it.
In people with no ADHD diagnosis. In people who by every external measure had it together.
Buried inboxes. Reactive weeks. Teams that could not make a move without their manager in the middle of every decision. Leaders doing the work of three people and calling it dedication.
About three years ago, I was in a meeting with a Chief Marketing Officer. He shared his screen. I saw his inbox.
Over 25,000 unread emails.
Not a newer manager still figuring things out. This was someone who had spent decades building a career, earned a seat in the C-suite, and by every measure had made it. And in all those years, in every role, with every promotion, nobody had ever taught him how to manage his inbox.
He’s not the only one sitting with tens of thousands of unread emails in his inbox.
Nobody teaches you this stuff. You get promoted and you are expected to figure it out. More likely, nobody taught you to begin with. And most people never do.
The problem doesn’t fix itself. You cannot outwork it. You cannot outrank it. A bigger title doesn’t solve it.
What solves it is a leadership operating system. The framework for managing your own capacity, building a team that doesn’t depend on you for everything, and leading in a way that is sustainable for you and fair to them. The thing most managers weren’t given when they got promoted.
That is what PXIL is.
Most managers are stuck in one of three patterns. Which one is yours?
The PXIL Leader Assessment is a five-minute diagnostic that shows you exactly which pattern you are stuck in and where to go from there.
No call required. No sales pitch waiting on the other side. Just a clear picture of where you are stuck and a path forward.
Did you know?
“I was feeling stretched thin trying to manage priorities, follow-through, and communication all at once. Luis helped me translate feedback into practical changes. I feel more in control week to week and less like I am spinning.”
“I often felt overwhelmed by my workload and struggled to balance productivity with effective leadership. I could apply what I learned immediately, and I started seeing results in my communication and focus within just a few weeks. I now lead with more clarity and confidence, and I feel much more in control.”
Don’t be that CMO with 25,000 unread emails. Over 44% of my emails skip my inbox, see how in 20 seconds.
Enter your name and email and I’ll send you the link to a video showing you how to start skipping emails.
Meet Luis, the Founder and Conductor of Work at PXIL.
I’m a leadership coach, a former scientist, and a recovered hamster. When I stepped into my first leadership role, I realized most managers get the job and nobody gives them what they actually need to do it well. So I built it.
If you want the full story, it’s on the About page.