3 ways to stop false urgency in its tracks

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“Panic causes tunnel vision. Calm acceptance of danger allows us to more easily assess the situation and see the options.” -  Simon Sinek

Ponder this…

April is National Stress Awareness Month, created to bring attention to the negative effects stress can have on our health and wellbeing. Before you say, “I’m very aware of my stress already” and move on, take a moment to consider the role stress plays in your life. As leaders in an interconnected world, pressure is part of the deal, but are you creating unnecessary stress for yourself and for your team? 

 Ask yourself: 

• Are you and your team in a chronic state of overwhelm and reactivity? 
• Do you catch yourself apologizing for yet another fire drill? 
• Do you and your team only have time to do “real work” in the evenings or on weekends?
• Have you received feedback that you need to prioritize more?

If any of these sound familiar, you may be unintentionally creating false urgency. Even great leaders can inadvertently do this, creating an unproductive busyness that doesn’t actually lead to meaningful progress. 

You’re in a position of power, so your words—even casual spitballing or inadvertent reactions—can cause your team to spring into actions. Over time, your team may even jump to anticipate your needs without you ever saying a word. That jumping sidelines the most critical work, draining your team of their energy and damaging morale. 

As stress and burnout in both leaders and employees remain alarmingly high, it’s critical for all leaders to recognize the distinction and root out false urgency from their teams. Here’s how. 

Prioritize ruthlessly

Struggling to prioritize the important over the urgent is a key culprit in creating false urgency, and it’s something most leaders find difficult. Research shows that we prioritize tasks with the shortest deadlines, even if those tasks aren’t the most important. When we’re trying to improve situations, we also tend to default to addition rather than subtraction, and the sunk cost fallacy can make it difficult to drop something we’ve already invested in. 

Creating psychological distance can help you stay focused on the big picture. To do this, zoom out and imagine physical distance, or that someone other than you is involved. Once you have space from the situation, it will be easier to think clearly. For example, you may ask yourself, “If I imagine it’s one year from today, what is the most important thing for us to do?” Or “How would I advise another leader to prioritize these tasks?” 

As you examine your situation, don’t neglect the potential gains of walking away from ideas and endeavors, even those into which you’ve already invested time, money, or effort. Weigh the advantages of discontinuing against what it will cost you to continue your efforts. It’s not easy to let go of something you’ve invested in, but subtraction is often an advantageous option. 

Employ strategic procrastination

Procrastination typically has a negative connotation, but when used purposefully, it can be extremely helpful. In strategic procrastination, you start something, but don’t finish it until it’s almost due. This can allow you your team to think about it gradually, eliminating the unnecessary rush of low-value work.  Strategic procrastination enables more insights to surface, and has been show to increase creativity and innovation. 

If you decide to employ this tactic, it may require you to reset expectations and repattern relationships with your stakeholders. Proactively communicate about timelines, and articulate the reasoning behind the shift. Over time, this can reduce your stakeholders’ dependency on your team to quickly solve problems, which will allow for a more sustainable pace (and often a better final product).

Foster a culture of true urgency 

Creating team norms can help you to foster a reasonable operational tempo. Together, define specific criteria for what constitutes an urgent task—like strategic alignment, critical client needs, or safety concerns—and schedule regular reviews to reassess these priorities. Take time to define reasonable response time expectations based on urgency levels, and outline the appropriate communication channels. Without clear expectations, your team will likely drop what they’re doing to answer your emails, even when they aren’t urgent.

As a leader, it’s your responsibility to make the call on what is and isn’t urgent, and to shield your team from external false urgency—even if it comes from you. Give your team permission to challenge the urgency of tasks and provide feedback on instances of false urgency. A psychologically safe environment is crucial here, as it is difficult for most of us to push back on their leader. So when team members question deadlines, listen, consider, and acknowledge their point of view, even if you still need to insist on the deadline.

Constant false urgency isn’t a sustainable way to work. Deep and creative work only flourishes when there is time and space for it to do so. Utilizing these tips will help you focus on what’s truly urgent, enabling your team to deliver strong results and sustain high performance—without stressing out. 

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