In conversations with leaders, a common theme is that they are often focussed on the urgent with not enough focus on the important. Does that resonate with you?
It is a familiar paradox: the more experienced we become, the more people rely on us, and the more our days fill with urgent demands. Messages that need replies, decisions that need signatures, and problems that need quick fixes.
But urgency has a way of hijacking our attention. The result? We spend our days reacting instead of leading.
Urgency comes with built‑in signals: notifications, deadlines, other people’s expectations, while importance is often silent. This is why leaders often default to urgency. But it comes at a cost, it creates:
- Firefighting cultures where teams wait for crises instead of preventing them.
- Strategic drift as long‑term priorities get postponed.
- Burnout from perpetually reacting.
- Stalled innovation because important work never gets the time it needs.
Leaders need to purposefully rebalance.
- Protect time for important work. Block time on your calendar for strategic thinking.
- Use the ‘Next Action’ test. Break important work down into chunks.
- Reduce false urgency. Test the veracity of the urgency.
- Delegate more than feels comfortable Urgent not important tasks are prime candidates for delegation.
- Build a culture that values importance Reward proactive planning, not heroic firefighting.
When we prioritise importance over immediacy, we create organisations that are calmer, more strategic, and more capable of long-term success.
Urgency will always shout loudly; importance whispers. Leadership is knowing which to answer first.
With that in mind, take time out to think:
- Over the last week/ month, did you get the balance right between focussing on crisis (the urgent) versus the important?
- Did you carve out any time to plan for the future – if not why?
- What shadow did you cast as a leader? How many people will have felt they were in crisis mode as an unintended consequence of something you said or did?
- As you think about your week and month ahead, how are you going to create the conditions to unlock yourself from being solely in urgent rather than important mode for yourself and for others?
As leaders, we can show our people that we are role modelling the changes that all of us want to see. Let’s be better and be the change. Contact me via [email protected] if you would like help to do so.
If you would like to read more articles encouraging you to think and be the change then visit https://jhcoaching.co.uk.