Good fences make good neighbors: why setting boundaries is the new leadership imperative
A client recently said, “I have virtual meetings from 8am-6pm, eat dinner, and work until late in the evening. Then I work on the weekend—I am totally fried.” Sound familiar? You’re not alone. We’re hearing this same concern from many of the leaders we advise whose organizations have gone virtual.Without being able to connect with colleagues in the office, calendars are crammed. Formal meetings replace dropping in for a chat. Leaders squeeze in planning time late at night or the 30 seconds between video meetings. Ironically, even with so many meetings, leaders feel they are less in touch with their teams and lack the insight to know what is truly going on. And to top it off, being their best as a partner, parent, and friend, well… that’s reached an all-time low, too.Unfortunately, this is one of the great challenges in our virtual world. A whole set of boundaries leaders previously relied on have been erased. The commute, decompression time between office and home, and the distance between the two are no longer a sanctuary. Home is the office and vice versa. One client recently told us that she misses her commute—something she said she could never have imagined saying a year ago.And, with even more pressure on executives to increase revenue, execute strategy quickly, and reduce expenses, it is likely this division between work and home will become even blurrier.
Boundaries create needed structure for you and others
We know deep down that working this way isn’t sustainable for the long-term and yet it’s unclear now how much longer virtual will be the norm. Many companies are making decisions to eliminate traditional office space. After this pandemic is over, perhaps many will still be remote. This is why boundaries are more critical now than ever for executives. Using strategies to ensure you have ample planning and thinking time and to attend to important work relationships is critical for you to free up bandwidth to lead your team and focus on what’s most important to move your business in the right direction.By treating your time as a highly valuable commodity, you’ll make the right choices to invest your time where it will yield the greatest return.As Robert Frost wrote, “Good fences make good neighbors.”Not only does setting productive boundaries create time for you; it enables you to be a better colleague by offering the opportunity for appropriate redirection to get things done even more quickly and efficiently without your involvement. With an already over-booked schedule, taking on multiple new requests daily simply slows down processes, creates a bottle neck for others, and layers on additional stress for you.On the other hand, establishing productive boundaries creates value added focus, strong partnerships, and bridges silos while advancing the business and your team.You’ll be able to respond to requests by providing even better ways to accomplish the objective. Others will begin to see you as a strong sounding board and as a thought partner. They will know they can count on you to share your perspective to get things done most effectively and efficiently. If this is your intention, any reluctance to be a good steward of your own time is to your detriment.This may sound counterintuitive. After all, setting boundaries often implies a lack of cooperation or collegiality. However, many leaders who employ the right boundaries tell us these fences benefiteveryone by fostering the right progress on important strategies.Most people have a hard time saying no. We want to be seen as a team player and being asked to help often equates to being valued. However, too often our performance is diminished by fragmenting our efforts across too many domains. By taking on more, we end up doing less.
So how do you set effective boundaries?
As requests come in, quickly analyze whether taking on the task is a smart use of your limited energy and time. Ask yourself these three tough questions:1. Is my participation necessary? If not, whose is?2. Is it necessary now? If not, what is the right timing?3. Is this the optimal way to do this project? If not, what is the best way?If you answer ‘no’ to any of these three, re-direct the effort in a way that makes better business sense. By saying ‘no’ while offering a solution, you will be considered a collaborative thought partner. Use one of these three phrases:No, not…
- …me: You acknowledge the work needs to be done and, while saying you’re not the person to do the work, you are recommending the right resource.
- …now: You recognize that time is often the scarcest resource and that, if your direct involvement is critical, you are opening the door to a mutually agreeable timeline.
- …this way: While you value the outcome the other party is seeking, you are collaborating on an approach that may be more efficient or effective.
If saying ‘no’ feels uncomfortable, a ‘yes, if…’ phrase is a positive alternative to create the same boundaries:Yes, if…
- …someone else does it: Recommend someone who is a viable replacement for you, perhaps someone who could use some exposure or for whom it can be a beneficial learning opportunity.
- …we adjust the timing: Offer timing that will work for you and the business.
- …we structure it differently: Suggest a way to reach the end goal that is equally or more effective and works for you.
The outcome: good fences and better outcomes
Building strong fences enables you to become an important solution rather than a bottleneck. You become the proverbial good neighbor to your colleagues and the enterprise. And most importantly, you begin to clear valuable pockets on your calendar for your most important focus.The best leaders set aside thinking and preparation time, honor it, and use it wisely. Don’t you owe it to yourself, and everyone else, to create boundaries that enable you and your organization to thrive?
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From top-down to judgment all around: The AI imperative for organizations
Each business revolution has reshaped not only how businesses operate, but how they organize themselves and empower their people. From the industrial age to the information era, and now into the age of artificial intelligence, technology has always brought with it a reconfiguration of authority, capability, and judgment.
In the 19th century, industrialization centralized work and knowledge. The factory system required hierarchical structures where strategy, information, and decision-making were concentrated at the top. Managers at the apex made tradeoffs for the greater good of the enterprise because they were the only ones with access to the full picture.
Then came the information economy. With it came the distribution of information and a need for more agile, team-based structures. Cross-functional collaboration and customer proximity became competitive necessities. Organizations flattened, experimented with matrix models, and pushed decision-making closer to where problems were being solved. What had once been the purview of a select few, judgment, strategic tradeoffs, and insight became expected competencies for managers and team leads across the enterprise.
Now, AI is changing the game again. But this time, it’s not just about access to data. It’s about access to intelligence.
Generative AI democratizes access not only to information, but to intelligent output. That shifts the burden for humans from producing insights to evaluating them. Judgment, which was long the domain of a few executives, must now become a baseline competency for the many across the organization.
But here’s the paradox: while AI extends our capacity for intelligence, discernment, the human ability to weigh context, values, and consequence, is still best left in the hands of human leaders. As organizations begin to automate early-career work, they may inadvertently erase the very pathways and opportunities by which judgment was built.
Why judgment matters more than ever
Deloitte’s 2023 Human Capital Trends survey found that 85% of leaders believe independent decision-making is more important than ever, but only 26% say they’re ready to support it. That shortfall threatens to neutralize the very productivity gains AI promises.
If employees can’t question, challenge, or contextualize AI’s output, then intelligent tools become dangerous shortcuts. The organization stalls, not from a lack of answers, but from a lack of sense-making.
What organizations must do
To stay competitive, organizations must shift from simply adopting AI to designing AI-aware ways of working:
- Build new learning paths for judgment development. As AI replaces easily systematized tasks, companies must replace lost learning experiences with mentorship, simulations, and intentional development planning.
- Design workflows that require human input. Treat AI as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. Embed review checkpoints and tradeoff discussions. Just as innovation processes have stage gates, so should AI analyses.
- Make judgment measurable. Assess and develop decision-making under ambiguity from entry-level roles onward. Research shows the best learning strategy for this is high-fidelity simulations.
- Start earlier. Leadership development must begin far earlier in career paths, because judgment, not just knowledge, is the new differentiator.
What’s emerging is not just a flatter hierarchy, but a more distributed sense of judgment responsibility. To thrive, organizations must prepare their people not to outthink AI, but to out-judge it.
BTS acquires Nexo to strengthen its position in Brazil and Latin America
P R E S S R E L E A S E
Stockholm, May 5, 2025
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN – BTS Group AB (publ), a leading global consultancy specializing in strategy execution, change, and people development, has agreed to acquire Nexo Pesquisa e Consultoria Ltda., Nexo, a boutique consulting firm headquartered in São Paulo, Brazil.
Nexo has been growing continuously since it was founded in 2017. With revenues of approximately 12 million Brazilian Reales (approx. 2.1 million USD) in 2024, and a highly capable team of 21 members, Nexo has built a strong reputation for delivering transformative projects in strategy, innovation, leadership, and culture.
Nexo collaborates with a great portfolio of clients across sectors such as financial services, consumer goods, and technology, assisting both local and global companies in navigating uncertainty, unlocking creativity, and activating strategy through people. Their work encompasses culture transformation, leadership development, employer value proposition, innovation culture, and vision alignment – supported by proprietary methodologies and frameworks.
BTS currently operates in Brazil servicing both local and multinational clients with a team of 13 employees. By acquiring Nexo, BTS not only increases the Group’s footprint in Brazil but also adds significant capabilities in culture and transformation services. Nexo’s client base has limited overlap with BTS, creating strong growth potential and synergy opportunities.
“Nexo is known for helping leaders and organizations tackle some of the most complex, human-centered challenges with creativity, empathy, and strategic clarity and the Nexo team is loved by their clients,” says Philios Andreou, Deputy CEO of BTS Group and President of the Other Markets Unit. “Their products and services complement and elevate our existing offerings, especially in culture transformation, and we are thrilled to welcome the Nexo team to BTS.”
“We’re excited to join BTS. We’ve long admired BTS’s approach and unique portfolio to support large organizations and leaders in connecting strategy with culture across the organization,” says Andreas Auerbach, co founder of Nexo. “Becoming part of BTS, allows us to scale our impact and bring more value to our clients while staying true to our values and culture,” adds Mariana Lage Andrade, co-founder of Nexo.
Upon completion of the transaction, Nexo’s business and organization will merge with BTS Brazil. Nexo’s founders will assume senior management roles in the joint operation.
The acquisition includes a limited initial cash consideration. Additional purchase price considerations will be paid between 2026 and 2028, provided Nexo meets specific performance targets. A limited portion of any such additional purchase price considerations will be paid in newly issued BTS shares. The transaction is effective immediately.
BTS’s acquisition strategy continues to focus on broadening our service portfolio, expanding our geographic reach, and enhancing our capabilities to support future organic growth in a fragmented market.
For more information, please contact:
Philios Andreou
Deputy CEO
BTS Group AB
philios.andreou@bts.com
Michael Wallin
Head of investor relations
BTS Group AB
michael.wallin@bts.com
+46-8-587 070 02
+46-708-78 80 19
High-performing teaming
Work today is too complex for individuals to succeed in isolation. Almost every critical decision, innovation, or transformation depends on teams working effectively together. Leaders rely on their teams to deliver results. Teams, in turn, rely on their leaders to create the conditions where performance is possible. This exchange, what leaders need from their teams, and what teams need from their leaders, sits at the heart of what we call teaming.
When teaming is strong, leaders get what they need from their teams [creativity, resilience, execution] and teams get what they need from leaders [direction, support, and the conditions to thrive]. It’s how strategy becomes action, how uncertainty becomes opportunity, and how businesses stay competitive in a fast-changing world.