Day-to-day urgency is like the school bully of strategy. Here’s what you can do to stay focused when everything feels like it’s on fire.
Be honest with yourself for a second. How many of your weeks lately have felt like controlled chaos? The slack is relentless, your inbox won’t quit, your team needs answers, and somewhere in the blur of back-to-back decisions, strategic thinking went out the window.
Here’s the thing: it’s not that you have more fires than other leaders (I know it might feel like it, but it doesn’t matter if you do, regardless). It’s that when urgency becomes your default operating mode, you stop leading and start reacting. And reactive leadership is exhausting — for you, and for everyone around.
The good news? You are a leader. You can influence change and outcomes. It won’t happen by having fewer problems, but by handling them differently. Here are five things you can start doing right now — plus one bonus that most leaders know they need to do but keep putting off.
1. Ask Better Questions
When the pressure’s on, your instinct is probably to have the answers. Resist it. Start asking your team better questions instead.
What’s actually blocking you right now? What would make the biggest difference this week? What do you need from me that you’re not getting?
You might think you’re asking questions already, and maybe you are. So here’s the test. Write down the number of questions you ask your team in a week. Then work to increase it the following week. Keep in mind I know your cheat code. Closed ended questions count as minus one question! You’re not looking for “yes” or “no”. You’re looking for critical thinking and analysis. That thinking and analysis leads to improved communication and better problem solving. Better problem solving reduces urgency.
On the team side of things, when you understand what matters to your people (because you’ve asked them!), and connect it to what the organization needs, you build something real: loyalty, commitment, trust and effort when it counts most. People who feel understood don’t coast when things get hard. They show up.
Keep in mind as well that if everything feels urgent right now, you cannot afford to lose a key person. Turnover in a crisis doesn’t just hurt — it can be catastrophic. Ask better questions before it gets to that point. (And read on to my bonus tip!)
2. Seek Understanding Before You Act
Measure twice, cut once. You’ve heard it before. Now apply it to leadership.
Before you jump into fix-it mode, take a beat to actually understand what’s going on. While this sounds obvious, it rarely happens. When you’re busy, it’s tempting to assume you already know the situation — and start cutting before you’ve finished measuring. Then you’re halfway through solving the wrong problem
Taking time to understand the root cause, who’s affected, and what’s already been tried isn’t a delay — it’s an investment. It makes everything you do after more effective. It reduces rework. Mistakes cost less. Importantly, it also chips away at that low-grade feeling of chaos + exhaustion that tends to follow reactive teams everywhere they go. Slow down just enough to understand. Then act decisively. The sequence matters more than you think.
3. Prioritize Ruthlessly (And Let Some Things Burn)
Newsflash! Not everything is a priority.
You know not everything is a priority. But when everything feels urgent, it’s easy to treat everything like it’s on fire. To a hammer, everything is a nail, right?
Your job is to decide what actually gets attention and what gets left on the pile. That’s uncomfortable. Do it anyway.
Ask yourself: What absolutely cannot slip? What are the real consequences of delay? And — critically — does letting this one burn leave someone else hanging in a way that creates an even bigger fire down the road?
Once you’ve answered those questions honestly, prioritize with confidence. Some things can wait. Some things need to burn. Just make sure you’re clear on which is which (oh, and that your team is too!) Clarity from you prevents a whole lot of unnecessary scrambling from them.
4. Recharge. You Are Your Best Investment
Adrenaline is a great short-term fuel. It’s a terrible long-term strategy.
You can run on caffeine, urgency, and sheer will for a stretch. Maybe you’re doing it right now and sometimes it might feel empowering. But when sustained pressure becomes your new normal, your performance degrades (even if you don’t notice it yet). Your judgment gets cloudier. Patience gets shorter. Your decisions get worse. Don’t do that.
This isn’t a lecture about work-life balance. It’s practical advice: the problems will still be there tomorrow. Your health, your judgment, and your energy won’t automatically regenerate if you run them into the ground.
Look at the basics. Protect some time in your day that isn’t consumed by someone else’s urgent request. Move your body. Eat something that didn’t come out of a vending machine. Finally, lead by example because your team is watching how you operate. They’ll mirror it whether you intend that or not.
5. Slow Down Long Enough to Work Smarter
When everything is moving fast, it’s tempting to keep your head down and hustle. Don’t — at least, not all the time.
Periodically force yourself to lift your head up. That might mean delegating something you’ve been holding onto — even a task that feels like it needs your specific touch. It might mean pulling your team into a meeting that intentionally zooms out from the day-to-day to ask: are we working on the right things? Is there a better way we haven’t seen because we’ve been too close to it?
Going from 10,000 feet to 20,000 feet, even for an hour, often reveals bottlenecks, redundancies, or opportunities that are completely invisible when you’re in the weeds. Build this into your rhythm now — not when things calm down. Because things don’t always calm down, and waiting for a break that may not come is its own kind of trap. We wrote another post on slowing down to speed up for Kelowna leaders. Check it out!
Bonus: Shed the Dead Weight
(This Is Not HR Advice)
Okay. This one’s uncomfortable. But you already know you need to hear it.
If you have someone on your team who isn’t a fit. I’m not talking about a performance issue that coaching can fix, but a genuine wrong fit for the role, the team, or the direction you’re heading — you need to deal with it. You probably already have someone who came to mind, either now, or earlier in your career.
Fun fact: If it’s happening now, your team knows who this is. They’re spending time managing around that person, absorbing the friction, and quietly wondering why you’re not doing anything about it. That’s energy and focus that should be going toward the actual urgent priorities everyone is buried under.
I want to be super clear here: A wrong fit isn’t a bad person, it’s a mismatch. Parting ways respectfully, even generously, can be one of the most energizing things you do for your team, and for them (even though they might not see it right away). It clears the air. It refocuses everyone.
Not acting on this when you know you should? Oh I’ve seen this too many times. Just do it. The lack of respect that creeps into your leadership from your team is worth avoiding in itself. Don’t be weaksauce. Make it happen.
Yes, some environments make this harder than others. But where you have the ability to make this call, make it. Then get back to leading the people that are rowing in the same direction.
The Bottom Line
Urgency isn’t going away. The pace isn’t slowing down. But that’s okay. The leaders who stay effective through sustained pressure aren’t superhuman. They’re more intentional.
Ask better questions. Understand before you act. Prioritize without apology. Protect your energy. Work smarter when it’s easier to just work harder.
That’s what turns a reactive manager into a leader people actually want to follow into a fire.
Ready to Stop Reacting and Start Leading?
The best leaders don’t wait until things slow down to get better, because things don’t slow down. We hear from leaders who say they’re too busy for coaching. If you’re too busy, that’s at time when you could actually benefit most coaching. Executive coaching gives you the tools, the perspective, and the honest conversation that most leaders never get. We help you build the skills to lead better, have hard conversations and create understanding.
You know where you want to be. Let’s close the gap, together.
Wilkins Insights works with leaders across Western Canada, including Vancouver, Kelowna, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, and Lethbridge.
