I am convinced that every serious managerial position actually embraces two different roles: the visionary role and the executor role. They are very different in nature and require different skills. The visionary works on the _important_ things and engages in focused analysis, ideating, long term planning, thoughful networking, concentrated decision making, all of which requires uninterrupted time. The executor works with the _urgent_ things and is busy with making sure that the decisions are carried out, fighting fires, keeping the plates in the air, which involves a constant stream of interruptions and being generally available to everyone on short notice.<p>These roles are often assumed by the same person, however I think it's typically a mistake. If one finds themselves in a high stakes leadership role, where growth and development is expected, my recommendation would be: try to remain the visionary, and delegate the execution to a good deputy as much as possible.<p>In engineering this pattern is often realized as the "architect + technical lead" combination.