April 20, 2026

M&S CEO Says Leaders Shouldn’t Switch Off Completely — But Intentional Disengagement Is What Drives Performance

By Lesley Cooper

In a recent speech at the Business Leader Summit in London, M&S CEO Stuart Machin suggested that leaders shouldn’t fully switch off during holidays. These remarks have, unsurprisingly, reopened an important debate about work-life balance. Such thinking usually stems from a commitment and a sense of responsibility, but it can also send a dangerous message that always being available is what good performance looks like. In reality, sustainable performance depends on something very different – intentional disengagement.

This is an opportunity to reset expectations and support leaders in adopting a more human-centred approach to performance, grounded in intentional disengagement and recovery.

The Myth of Being Always On

There’s a common assumption that caring deeply about work means it should sit at the centre of life. In many high-performance environments, visibility and responsiveness are often mistaken for effectiveness.

But strong performance is not defined by this alone. It’s also shaped by rest, relationships, interests, and time to reflect, all of which strengthen creativity, empathy, perspective, and better leadership. Without that space to recover, performance declines. Thinking becomes less flexible, fatigue builds, and impact becomes harder to sustain.

Intentional Disengagement Drives Performance

Consider the following analogy: if you swing an axe at a tree without sharpening it, it becomes blunt. You can keep swinging, but it takes far more effort to get the same result. Intentional disengagement is the sharpening process. When people give themselves permission to step back mentally from work, they recharge, think more clearly, regain focus, and often feel more creative and grounded in who they are.

Recovery is what makes sustainable performance possible. Our best thinking often happens in that diffuse space when attention shifts during rest, movement, or doing something completely different. It rarely arrives while staring at a screen.

The Problem with Partial Presence

In many organisations, the issue is not full engagement or full disengagement, but something in between. Leaders may take time away from the office, yet remain mentally tethered to work, checking emails intermittently, keeping notifications on, dialling into “just one” meeting, and carrying unresolved issues in the back of their mind. This creates a state of partial presence. They are neither properly working nor fully resting.

And, crucially, being partly present doesn’t do the same job. It doesn’t restore energy, create clarity, or unlock creativity. Instead, it prolongs fatigue and dilutes attention, both at work and at home. If we are serious about performance, we have to move beyond this halfway approach.

Supporting Leaders to Switch Off

As EX professionals, there’s a responsibility to shape the conditions that truly allow leaders to switch off. This goes beyond wellbeing slogans – it needs to be built into how work is designed. Here are some of the areas that matter most:

1. Redefining What Productivity Looks Like

We need to move away from equating visibility with value. Productivity is better defined by the quality of thinking, the impact of decisions, the ability to lead and inspire others, and sustainability over time. It should not be measured by how quickly someone responds to an email while on holiday.

2. Fostering a Safe Culture

There’s sometimes an underlying concern that stepping away might lead to things going wrong or raise questions about commitment. This is closely tied to psychological safety, the sense of whether it is safe enough to do something without the fear of negative consequences. When organisations foster psychological safety, people feel able to step back while others step forward to take ownership. Over time, teams become less dependent on individuals and more confident in shared responsibility.

3. Creating Genuine Permission

Many leaders don’t switch off simply because they don’t feel they can. Permission needs to be clearly communicated and genuinely lived out across the organisation. That means being explicit about expectations around time off, actively respecting boundaries, making sure workload is properly handed over and covered, and senior leaders consistently showing what good practice looks like through their own behaviour. Without that, stepping back will always feel uncertain or risky.

4. Building the Skill of Disengagement

Switching off can be difficult, especially for those who are highly driven and deeply invested in their work. It is a skill that can be developed, and leaders can be supported in building it by preparing properly for time away, setting clear boundaries with their teams, managing the psychological pull back to work, and creating simple rituals that help them move out of ‘work mode’. These are practical, learnable habits, and they make a significant difference.

From Endurance to Sustainability

For too long, leadership has been defined by endurance, pushing through, staying connected, and always being available. Endurance, however, does not equal effectiveness.

A more sustainable approach is to focus on energy. This is about making sure leaders rest properly, don’t just chase constant output, and think about the long term instead of only reacting to what’s happening right now. Intentional disengagement sits at the centre of that shift.

Sharpening the Edge

When senior voices suggest that constant availability is essential for high performance, they risk reinforcing a linear view of effort that doesn’t reflect how human performance actually works. Smart leadership recognises the need – for themselves and for others – to step away to recover, reset, and return sharper.

The qualities that make someone an exceptional leader come from a full, rounded life – one that includes work, but isn’t dominated by it. Sometimes, the most effective thing a leader can do is step back. Not partially, not reluctantly, but intentionally.

Lesley Cooper is a management consultant with nearly 30 years of experience in health and wellbeing within the private healthcare sector. She is the founder and CEO of WorkingWell, an award-winning specialist consultancy helping organisations manage pressure and stress to build a culture of sustainable high performance. Lesley is also the co-author of Brave New Leader.