Important vs. Urgent | Tensions | Part 9 of 10

Welcome back to our “Tensions” series. In this episode, Chip Parker unpacks the next tension in our series: important vs. urgent. Listen in as we look at how to balance the things we know we need to get done and the things that demand our immediate attention. Let’s dive in!

Thanks for listening to the Impact Leadership podcast! We are so glad that you're here. If you're looking to connect with Chip Parker, send him a message at chip@theorchardcc.org. New episodes are released weekly on Wednesdays. We'll catch you in the next episode!

Transcript

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Hey everybody, welcome in to the Impact Leadership Podcast. My name is Chip Parker, and I'm the lead pastor at the Orchard Community Church, a multi-site church in North Central Florida working to impact lostness and impact the next generation. This podcast is all about helping you as a church leader grow your leadership to grow your impact. Let's hop into this week's conversation. All right, so here we are, episode nine, conversation number nine, as we've been talking around tensions in leadership. Now, if you have followed us through this conversation, as we've talked about some real tensions and some apparent tensions, let me just say I appreciate it. I think it is important. I think how we handle these tensions, whether they are real or not, are super important for us. If we learn how to manage proper tensions properly, our leadership is going to thrive. And if we learn how to actually make decisions that are hiding as tensions, our leadership is going to thrive. And today, I think we're going to look at one of these tensions that is something we all face, whether you are a leader or not, whether you just lead at home or on the ball field, maybe not even in your work, regardless of what kind of organization you're in, you face this tension. And it is the tension of the important versus the urgent. Those things that we have to do that are important to get done, and those things we have to do that just have to get done. Those are real tensions that we face in every area of our life. And the truth is, as much as we would like it to be otherwise, this really is a tension that we have to hold. We have to learn how to balance out doing what is important versus doing what is urgent. The big idea for us is this the urgent never disappears. It's always going to be there, it's never going to go away. The urgent never disappears. But what is important must be protected. What is important must be protected. Now, if you are a leader in any kind of organization, any kind of business, you have probably heard of the Eisenhower matrix. And the Eisenhower matrix comes from former president Dwight Eisenhower, and it was a simple four grid that he used to make decisions and manages calendar. Really, he would have four squares that formed a grid, and he would label those in four ways. There were the things that were urgent and important, the things that were not urgent, but they were important, the things that were urgent but not important, and the things that were neither not urgent nor important. And those are the four, you know, squares of the Eisenhower matrix. And he used that as a way to learn how to balance that tension between the important versus the urgent. Now, obviously, there are two squares on the Eisenhower matrix that jump out to us. There is the urgent and important, those things that are both urgent and important. Those are things that will and should take our time and attention. These are crises that happen, not just like somebody else's emergency, but legitimate crisis. Hey, this is something that has to be handled now, or else it is going to do a lot of damage. This is something that with a goal we have in our organization that has a deadline that is quickly approaching. These things tend to make sure they get done because they are both urgent and important. Then on the kind of opposite side of that, we have the things that are not urgent and they're not important. This is busy work. These are the things that just, you know, maybe have to be done, but really the world's not depending on them. It's things like in my world, it's things just like going through some random emails. It is, you know, returning phone calls from people that I've never met and that are just wanting to sell the church something, or it's managing receipts that we have to do through expenses and things like that. Those things that are not necessarily going to make or break everything we're doing. They don't necessarily have to be done immediately, but they do have to be done. I think that, you know, those things are important for us to look at, but maybe not give all of our time to. So we have the big quadrant of urgent and important, and the big quadrant of not urgent, not important. Those kind of are self-explanatory. To me, the two that are the hardest to really manage are those things that are not urgent, but they are important, and those things that are not important, but they are urgent. The truth is, those things that are not important, but they are urgent, are the things that get our attention because they feel pressing. Those are the interruptions that happen in the workplace that where people come and knock on our door and there's something we need to deal with now, but really it's not all that important. It's just pressing because it's on us. And the truth is the urgent is loud. The urgent gets our attention. The urgent cries out and says, handle this, handle this, handle this. But one of the most dangerous mistakes we can make as leaders is allowing those things that are urgent but not important to crowd out the things that are important but not urgent. This is one of the biggest mistakes we can make when handling that tension of important versus urgent. See, the important things that we have that aren't urgent, they're often quiet. They don't cry out for attention. They just sit there and are willing to be looked over until we come to them. And it takes discipline for us to prioritize those things well. It takes discipline for us to say, yes, this is not urgent, but it is important and it's something that I'm going to give my attention to now. And so the way that Dwight Eisenhower said that we handle those things that are not urgent, but they are important, those things that are opportunities for the future. He says the way we handle those best is to schedule them, is to schedule them, to plan them, to decide not just how we're going to handle it, but when we're going to actually take the time to handle it. This is one of the skills that I see a lot of leaders missing. We don't know how to schedule, how to plan those things that are important, but they're just not urgent. They're just not pressing. So those are the things that we need to work to schedule. Those things that are urgent, but not important, those interruptions. He says that we need to make sure we are delegating those things, those things that are pressing in on us, but really don't demand our time, our attention, our focus. Those are things that other people in our organizations can and should handle. And if you'll go back and listen to previous conversations, we have to empower them to do just that. We have to empower them to handle those things. So when it comes to the things that are urgent but not important, we want to delegate. When it comes to the things that are important but not urgent, we want to make sure that we schedule them and we plan them. Here's the idea that I want to leave you with. That's one of the most important questions that you are going to answer as a leader. However, it's not an urgent question. So you're going to have to take time, set it aside, be disciplined, and learn how to work that Eisenhower matrix. Learn how to schedule things that are important, learn how to delegate things that aren't. Those are going to be key tools in you learning how to manage that tension between important and urgent in your leadership. One last thing before we end this conversation is just let me say if you are a leader, specifically in the local church context or even outside of it, I would love to be able to connect with you if I can help. If you would like, I'm going to have my email in the show notes. Reach out to me. We can set up a time to connect because here's what I know leadership is bigger than any one of us. If we are truly going to have an impact in our communities, we need to lean on each other and we need to learn from each other. So I would be more than happy to do what I can to connect with you and help you lead right where you are. So reach out, let us know how we can connect. But until then, we'll see you right back here next week on the Impact Leadership Podcast.