How to Stop Being Reactive And Become A Proactive Leader in Your Business
- Kelsea Koenreich
- Feb 26
- 6 min read
If there’s one thing I know deeply, it’s this: The survival mode feeling is very real.
As entrepreneurial mothers, we’re constantly making calculated decisions, but it feels like we never have enough time to do it.
“It's the indecisiveness of whether to push forward or pull back, the feeling of it never being enough, the lack of contentment.”
That feeling tells us we need to change. We need to change.
That’s why today, we’re talking about shifting from chaos and reactivity to proactive leadership—because this is the most common experience for mom entrepreneurs.
Signs You’re Stuck In Reactive Leadership
Reactive Leadership, also what I like to call chaos cycle, feeling like you're in always in survival mode.
So when my clients come to me, they often feel like they’re just ticking the boxes. It's one thing to the next. There's some sort of light at the end of the tunnel they keep seeing, but never feels reachable – like the goalpost keeps moving.
Here’s how you can determine if you’re working in reactive leadership:
You don’t have time to plan.
There's so many things that are always in front of us.
And how hard is it to make the difficult decisions to carve time out that is dedicated to planning and higher level visionary work that actually moves the needle forward?
This is why The Founders Circle Retreat is so impactful because it forces that separation that you know that you need, it forces you out of the day-to-day. It forces you to turn off distractions. It forces you to shut down interruptions and it gives you space to think and plan.
So if you're feeling like your planning is rushed or there's a lack of planning because you're always in survival mode, that's telling us that we need to break this chaos cycle.
Your team is confused.
If your team is confused, if you often get feedback that your employees are unsure of their priorities or they are unsure of the direction of the business, you’re in reactive leadership.
For example, if you’re handling multiple urgent tasks, you’re leaving little time to communicate the bigger picture. As a result, your team is often left to figure things out on their own.
When your leadership isn’t clear, your team is left in the dark, which ultimately impacts productivity and morale. This confusion is a strong indicator that you’re stuck in the chaos cycle.
You’re riding an emotional rollercoaster.
If you’re experiencing emotional highs and lows, it’s another clear sign you’re in reactive leadership. The emotional exhaustion from reacting to daily demands can cloud your judgment and prevent you from focusing on what truly matters.
5 Ways to Get Into (And Stay In) Proactive Leadership
If you want to move away from reactive leadership and step into a more proactive role, here’s where you start:
Audit Your Time & Prioritize Planning
If you’re constantly reacting, your time is being spent in the wrong places. You need to take a hard look at where your time is going and what’s draining you.
One of the most effective ways to shift into proactive leadership is to build in dedicated planning time.
This is why this is the first section of my VIP business assessment. I shift all of my clients to have one day a week at minimum where you have no meetings. This becomes your CEO day.
This is about intentionality, vision, strategy—anything that is forward-focused and higher-level thinking. This structure allows you to stop living in the weeds and start focusing on what actually moves your business forward.
Effectively Delegate
You need to trust your team with execution, especially tasks that drain you or fall outside your expertise, so you can focus on what drives the most impact in your business.
This also stretches to your home life, too. If you’re trying to run a business and run every single thing in your household, you’re setting yourself up to burn out.
“If you have a partner, you should not be managing all the day-to-day stuff. You need to have conversations about what they can take ownership of so that you’re not carrying everything.”
Maybe that means they handle school drop-offs or dinner two nights a week. Maybe it’s making sure household errands are evenly split. Whatever it is, you don’t have to do it all.
If you haven’t already, listen to the episode on delegation, where I break down the mistakes people make and how to do it effectively. There’s also a Delegation Planner inside the free Team Management Bundle that will help you get started.
Question Your Habits and Routines
Think about the habits you have because when your business is running you, it’s easy to wake up and let it take over your entire day.
If you know anything about me, you know that I get up at 5 a.m. You also know that I hate getting up at 5 a.m., but it’s what works for the season of life that I’m in with little kids.
For years, I spent my first hour journaling and reading without my phone, but then I would check work messages during my workout. I justified it, but in reality, I was taking away from time that was supposed to be for me. So in 2025, I completely removed my phone from those first two hours.
Now, I don’t touch my phone until around 8 a.m.
That’s allowed me to start my day with clarity and focus, rather than rolling over, checking emails and Slack, and jumping straight into reactive mode.
I believe that if you are in a season where you have kids that are dependent on you for things in the morning, you should be getting up before your kids. Like it or not, this has been one of the most impactful things for my emotional regulation as a mom and entrepreneur.
And let’s talk about nighttime routines, too! Because you likely need to go to bed earlier. If you’re saying, “I can’t get up at 5 a.m.,” you could if you went to bed at 9 p.m. That might mean.
watching less Netflix or setting a boundary not to work after your kids go to bed. But it’s possible.
Bookending your day with intentional time for yourself allows you to not just do more, but be more—more present, more focused, and more in control of your time.
Communicate With Your Teams
You can't act like a solopreneur when you have a team. You have to consider the impact of the decisions that you make on other people.
You NEED to communicate with your support system, your team in your home, your team in your business and make collaborative decisions.
If you want to build a collaborative team, I really invite you to make decisions collaboratively. Bring problems to the table, ask them for their opinions and their solutions.
It takes the pressure off you. And it allows you to make a decision that is likely going to affect the team as a team.
Look At Wins, Not Problems
The other thing that proactive leaders do daily is look at their daily wins.
I think one of the hardest things as an entrepreneur is that sometimes our weaknesses are our strengths and vice versa. So for me, one of my greatest gifts is that I am able to identify problems and fix them relatively quickly. That also means that I can be hypercritical of myself and of the people that I'm in relationships with.
Knowing that I have a tendency to see the problems, to focus on the problems, I have to intentionally remind myself to focus on the wins, to celebrate progress, and to acknowledge what we’ve achieved.
This is why journaling and practicing gratitude for me is something that I do every single morning.
Celebration is practicing gratitude.
Celebration is remembering that thing, that initiative, that idea you had is real.
When was the last time you stepped back and looked at your business and thought: This was created from an idea in my head.
Yesterday, I was doing laundry—everybody’s least favorite activity—and as I was putting my son’s clothes into the dryer, I thought: How amazing is it that my brain, my skill set, has created the ability for my children to have all the clothes they need?
That’s the kind of moment we overlook, but it’s what anchors us back in. That perspective shift brings peace of mind and clarity.
Make sure that you're practicing gratitude and celebrating the wins, matter how big or small.
Become A Proactive Leader in Your Business
Stepping into proactive leadership requires intentionality, structure, and a willingness to shift your habits. Start with one area at a time.
This is exactly what we focus on inside the Mom Founders Retreat—getting you out of the daily chaos and into a space where you can think, plan, and lead with clarity. If you’re ready to stop running in circles and start making intentional, high-impact moves in your business and life, this is where it happens.
Join us at the retreat, step into the next level of leadership, and finally get the time and space to create the strategy you need. Reserve your spot now.
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