The heart of effective leadership is focusing on box , important but not urgent activities.
Nevertheless, because no one is yelling at the moment or no deadline is pressing, and because
these activities demand creative thinking and discipline, they are often overlooked or given
only minimum attention. Yet these are highly leveraged activities. They are the core of leader-
ship success, and the essence of a successful life.
Examine box , urgent but not important, and box , urgent and important. These activ-
ities tend to be visible and rewarding, in the short term. As a result, leaders are caught up in
them, often losing sight of what is important in the long haul. Box , part of all of our lives,
speaks for itself.
HOW TO USE THIS LEADERSHIP TOOL
“Time management is really a misnomer—the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves.”
—Stephen Covey, THE SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLEThe key to leadership success is accepting responsibility for your own development, staying on
top of your important and urgent work (thereby ensuring short-term success), while also prac-
ticing the discipline to accomplish meaningful results in the long term (i.e., important but not
urgent work).
This tool assumes you are already awareof what is important in your career as a leader. If
you are not sure, you may wish to use some of the Strategic or Systemic tools listed at the end
of this section. Using the template provided, plan a few specific, serious, and powerful changes
in how you use your most scarce resource—your time. Alternatively, use this template in coach-
ing others to look seriously at their own time management practices, and to make a few mean-
ingful changes in their thinking, habits, and goals.
SECTION 13 TOOLS FORLEADINGPERFORMANCE 407
Activities- interruptions
- some calls, mail, reports, meetings
- many (most?) deadline activities
- many requests from others
- reacting to other peoples’ problems
Implications:- distracted from important work
- broken promises, goals, accountabilities
- feeling victimized and out of control
- addiction to action, adrenaline high
- shallow and broken relationships
- working hard with little to show for your
effort
Activities- look busy or comfortable work
- much e-mail and paper mail
- distractions or trivia
- some phone calls, idle chitchat
- pleasant or escape activities
Implications:- blaming busy-ness for not getting the
important things done - addiction to detail
- loss of career and business opportunities
- becoming dependent on others or on
institutions for the basics of life - loss of self-confidence and self-esteem
Not
Important