Urgent vs. Important: The Leadership Skill No One Teaches
One of the most powerful ways leaders shape organizational culture is by what they prioritize. But what does prioritization look like in the modern workplace? And more importantly, how do leaders consistently distinguish between what's urgent and what's truly important?
This distinction may sound like a slight shift, but it's one of the most underrated leadership skills. When leaders learn to break free from the urgency overload and refocus on what truly matters, they not only reduce burnout but also build trust, boost performance, and move their teams forward with clarity and intention.
Let's talk about how.
The Problem with Prioritizing the Urgent
When you're constantly navigating tight deadlines, team needs, and competing demands, the urgent tends to take over. The loudest problem gets your attention first. The ping on your phone pulls you out of strategy mode. And suddenly, your day is filled with reacting rather than taking the lead.
As President Dwight D. Eisenhower once observed:
"What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important."
Yet, in fast-paced environments, that distinction gets blurry. Urgent tasks come with pressure. They feel high stakes. However, if we don't pause to assess their actual impact, we fall into what I call 'fire drill leadership.' Always moving but rarely making progress.
When urgency overrides importance, here's what happens:
Strategic goals get sidelined
We constantly postpone high-value work
Teams lose sight of the "why" behind their work
Leaders start to feel stretched thin, reactive, and burned out
It's not that urgency is inherently bad. It's that without discernment, urgency runs the show.
The Urgency Overload Trap
In today's hyper-connected workplace, everything can feel urgent:
Constant emails and Slack messages
KPIs that refresh every quarter
Shifting expectations and unspoken team norms
Add to that a culture where "fast" is often mistaken for "effective," and you've got a recipe for stress, confusion, and decision fatigue.
I see it in the supervisors and managers I work with all the time. They're doing their best to stay on top of it all, but struggling to feel like they're leading. The problem isn't their work ethic. It's the environment, the pace, and the pressure.
And here's the good news: once you know the difference between urgent and important, you can start making choices that support sustainable leadership.
A Practical Framework: The Eisenhower Matrix
The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, is a powerful tool to help leaders categorize their work and reclaim control of their time. Here's how it breaks down:
🔴 Urgent + Important → Do Now
These are true emergencies: deadlines, crises, and immediate decisions.
Example: A system outage affecting your team's ability to work.
🟡 Important, Not Urgent → Schedule It
This is where strategy lives: work that's vital to long-term success but easy to postpone.
Example: Professional development, planning sessions, coaching conversations.
🔵 Urgent, Not Important → Delegate It
These tasks need to get done, but not necessarily by you.
Example: Routine reports, meeting scheduling, and certain email replies.
⚪ Not Urgent, Not Important → Eliminate or Minimize
These are distractions.
Example: Checking email every 5 minutes or sitting in meetings without a clear purpose.
The key to leadership growth? Spending more time in Quadrant 2: important but not urgent.
Why This Matters for Leadership
When leaders prioritize importance over urgency, everyone benefits:
✔️ Strategic Thinking Improves
You're no longer chasing fires; you're planning fire prevention. Long-term vision becomes part of your daily rhythm.
✔️ Teams Become Empowered
When you stop owning everything urgent, you make space for others to step up. Delegation becomes a development tool.
✔️ Burnout Goes Down
You lead from a place of clarity, not chaos. And that has a ripple effect: your team feels it, too.
✔️ The Work Gets Better
Focused, values-driven leadership leads to better decisions, higher-quality work, and improved outcomes.
Making It Real: How to Practice This Skill
Understanding the difference between urgency and importance is one thing. Living it out in a busy workplace takes intention. Here are a few ways to start:
1. Clarify Your North Star
Get clear on what truly matters. What goals align with your values and your team's mission? If you don't know where you're going, everything will feel like a detour.
2. Use the Matrix Daily or Weekly
It doesn't have to be complicated. Spend 5–10 minutes each morning or Friday afternoon sorting tasks into the four quadrants.
3. Schedule What Matters
Block time on your calendar for important but not urgent work. Treat it like a meeting with yourself. Protect that time like it matters because it does.
4. Communicate Boundaries with Clarity
Practice language like:
"That's on my radar. Let's check back in once this high-priority project wraps."
"Can this wait until [date] so I can give it full attention?"
5. Coach Your Team to Prioritize Too
Invite your team to this practice. Help them think critically about urgency, advocate for their time, and plan.
Elevate Your Leadership with Intention
Here's what I want you to know: you don't have to respond to everything immediately to be an effective leader.
The most respected leaders I work with are the ones who know when to pause. They know how to assess urgency without spiraling out of control. Who create space for themselves and their teams to focus on what truly moves the mission forward.
You already possess the qualities necessary to lead with clarity and purpose. You need the space and the tools to practice it.
Are you spending your day reacting to the urgent or investing in the important?