By Bradley Emerson Leadership Coach | Turn Around Strategist | Author of ‘Role’ and ‘Awake’

Listen, I need to tell you something that might make you uncomfortable.

I’ve been working with leaders for over a decade now, and I’ve watched something disturbing happen. Smart, capable people—people like you—have stopped thinking for themselves. They’ve become addicted to a drug called benchmarking, and it’s killing their ability to lead with conviction.

Let me be direct: when you benchmark, you’re often just being intellectually lazy.

I know that stings. But hear me out.

The Comfortable Lie We Tell Ourselves

Benchmarking feels so responsible, doesn’t it? You gather data, analyze competitors, study “best practices.” You create PowerPoint presentations full of industry comparisons and feel like you’re doing serious strategic work. But here’s what’s really happening: you’re outsourcing your thinking to other people.

You’re spending weeks researching what others have done instead of hours thinking about what you should do. You’re consuming other people’s solutions instead of creating your own. You’re measuring yourself against their standards instead of defining your own. And the worst part? You’re calling this “strategic planning.”

I’ve sat in boardrooms where leaders spent more time talking about what their competitors were doing than discussing what their own customers needed. I’ve watched brilliant people become intellectually dependent on industry reports, afraid to make a move without external validation.

This isn’t strategy. This is strategic cowardice disguised as due diligence.

Why Smart People Stop Thinking

Look, I get it. Original thinking is exhausting. It’s scary. When you create something new, you own the outcome—success or failure. When you copy what others are doing, you can always blame the “best practice” if things go wrong.

But here’s what I’ve learned from working with hundreds of leaders: the ones who create remarkable results are the ones who stopped asking “What are others doing?” and started asking “What should we do?” They use benchmarks as information, not as instruction manuals. They reference best practices as starting points for thinking, not as ending points for decision-making.

The difference? They think for themselves.

Let Me Tell You About Two Leaders

I worked with a consulting firm recently. The senior partners were obsessed with coaching metrics—session frequency, client satisfaction scores, billable hours. They had spreadsheets comparing themselves to industry standards. They felt sophisticated and data-driven.

I asked them a simple question: “If you had to design coaching from scratch, knowing what you know about transformation, what would it look like?” The silence was telling. They’d become so addicted to external validation that they’d forgotten how to trust their own expertise.

When we finally worked through it—when we forced them to think originally instead of comparatively—everything changed. Their conversations deepened. Their results improved. Their metrics actually got better than the industry benchmarks they’d been chasing. But more importantly, they remembered why they became coaches in the first place.

Then there’s the leadership team I mentioned earlier. They’d spent months in what I call “thinking laziness loops”—studying strategic plans, attending conferences, hiring consultants. They had mountains of information but zero insight.

The breakthrough came when I banned all external references for one session. Just for two hours, they couldn’t mention what any other company was doing. They had to think about their own context, their own purpose, their own possibilities.

The discomfort was immediate. These were leaders who’d become addicted to external validation. But once they pushed through that discomfort, they unlocked strategies that no benchmark could have predicted—and that perfectly served their unique situation.

The Mirror vs. The Compass

Here’s how I think about it: benchmarking is a mirror—it shows you what others look like. Leadership requires a compass—it shows you where you need to go.

Mirrors are useful for checking your appearance. Compasses are essential for navigation. Most leaders have become mirror-obsessed. They’re constantly looking at what others are doing, how they compare, whether they measure up. But they’ve lost their compass—their sense of direction, purpose, and unique contribution.

The Innovation Paradox Nobody Talks About

Here’s the irony that should keep you awake at night: the companies that create the benchmarks others chase are the ones that ignored benchmarks in the first place.

Apple didn’t benchmark their way to the iPhone. Netflix didn’t copy their way to streaming dominance. Amazon didn’t imitate their way to cloud leadership. The organizations that generate “best practices” are practicing original thinking. The organizations that follow “best practices” are, by definition, following rather than leading.

The more you benchmark, the less likely you are to create something worth benchmarking.

Think about that for a moment. While you’re studying what successful companies did five years ago, they’re already working on what comes next. You’re playing catch-up in a game where the rules have already changed.

Your Thinking Muscles Have Atrophied

I need to say this directly: most leaders have forgotten how to think independently. Not because they’re not smart—you are smart. But because you’ve been using thinking shortcuts for so long that your original thinking muscles have atrophied.

It’s like physical fitness. If you take the elevator every day instead of the stairs, your leg muscles weaken. If you Google every question instead of puzzling through problems yourself, your thinking muscles weaken. Benchmarking has become the intellectual elevator. It feels easier, it gets you to your destination, but it’s making you weaker in the process.

Five Questions That Will Change How You Think

Let me give you five practical tools—think of them as exercises for your thinking muscles. Use these before you reach for any benchmark:

1. The Context Reality Check

Before looking at what anyone else is doing, ask yourself: “What makes our situation genuinely unique?” Not just different—unique. What challenges, opportunities, constraints, and assets do you have that no one else has in exactly the same combination?

2. The Purpose Filter

For every decision, ask: “Are we doing this because it serves our mission, or because we’re afraid of what others might think?”

This question will expose how often you’re making decisions based on external expectations rather than internal conviction. I’ve seen leaders choose strategies they didn’t believe in because they sounded impressive in industry presentations. I’ve watched organizations abandon their unique approaches because they seemed too different from the competition.

Your mission should drive your decisions, not your insecurity about how others perceive you.

3. The Innovation Question

Instead of asking “What are others doing?” ask: “What would we do if we were the first organization to face this challenge?” This forces you to think from first principles instead of from borrowed solutions. Take one hour. Pretend no one has ever faced your current challenge before. What would you try? Document those ideas before you research how others have approached similar problems. You’ll be amazed at what your mind produces when it’s not constrained by other people’s thinking.

4. The Legacy Test

Ask yourself: “Will this decision help us build something worth remembering, or will it help us blend in with everyone else?”

Imagine you’re being interviewed ten years from now about your organization’s most significant contributions. What would you want to discuss? Would your current strategies make for a compelling story? Write your organization’s obituary as it might appear if you continue making benchmark-driven decisions. Then rewrite it as it could appear if you make purpose-driven decisions.

Which version inspires you?

5. The Courage Check

The hardest question: “Are we doing this because we believe it’s right, or because we’re afraid of being different?” This one will hurt. Because if you’re honest, you’ll realize how many of your decisions are driven by fear rather than conviction. Fear of criticism. Fear of standing out. Fear of being wrong. Fear of taking responsibility for original thinking.

But here’s what I’ve learned: you’re more likely to be wrong when you copy others than when you think for yourself. Because when you copy, you’re applying someone else’s solution to your unique context. When you think originally, you’re creating solutions designed specifically for your reality.

Stop Calling It Best Practice

Let me be blunt about something: the phrase “best practices” has become code for “I don’t want to think about this anymore.” It’s intellectual surrender disguised as strategic sophistication. Every time you use that phrase, you’re essentially saying: “Someone else has figured this out, so I don’t need to.” But complex, contextual challenges can’t be solved with copy-paste solutions.

What works in Silicon Valley might fail in rural communities. What succeeds in Finnish schools might be counterproductive in developing nations. What drives startup growth might destroy established culture. Context matters. Purpose matters. Your thinking matters.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Your Leadership

Here’s what I need you to understand: your people can tell when you’re thinking for yourself versus when you’re repeating someone else’s ideas. When you present strategies based on benchmarks, you sound informed but not inspired. When you share vision based on your own deep thinking about your unique situation, you sound convicted and compelling. Your team doesn’t need another leader who knows what everyone else is doing. They need a leader who knows what they should be doing.

This Is Your Cognitive Rehabilitation

I’m not asking you to ignore data or dismiss lessons from others. I’m asking you to use external information as input for your thinking, not as a substitute for your thinking.

The rehabilitation starts now.

Every time you catch yourself reaching for a benchmark, pause and ask: “What am I avoiding thinking about?” Every time you feel the urge to copy, challenge yourself: “What would I create if I had to solve this from scratch?” Every time you start explaining your strategy by referencing what others are doing, stop and explain it by referencing what you’re trying to accomplish.

Your Choice

You have a choice to make. You can keep outsourcing your thinking to industry reports and consultant frameworks. You can keep measuring your success by how well you compare to others. Or you can rebuild your capacity for independent thought. You can rediscover your ability to analyze context, synthesize information, and create original solutions.

You can remember that your brain is meant for creating, not just consuming.

The Question That Changes Everything

I’ll leave you with this: If you disappeared tomorrow, what would the world lose that couldn’t be replaced by someone following the same benchmarks you follow?

If you can’t answer that question immediately and specifically, you’ve been thinking lazily for too long. But here’s the good news: it’s not too late to start thinking for yourself again. Your unique context is calling for solutions that only you can create. Your people are waiting for leadership that only you can provide. Your mission needs strategies that only your thinking can generate.

Stop benchmarking your way to mediocrity. Start thinking your way to significance. The world doesn’t need another organization that does things the way everyone else does them. It needs what only you can build when you finally trust yourself to think originally again.

What are you going to create?