Since the late 1990s, I have managed crisis communications, change management and transformation programmes.
During that time, I have worked with leaders facing genuine pressure: reputational threats, operational disruption, commercial risk and organisations undergoing profound change.
These experiences have taught me an important lesson:
– Some situations demand immediate action.
– Many others simply reflect the anxiety of the leader.
The difficulty is knowing the difference.
Urgency Is Contagious
A leader’s internal state rarely remains internal.
An anxious email becomes an anxious meeting. The anxious meeting creates rushed decisions. Those decisions generate more meetings, more messages and more anxiety.
Soon, the entire organisation is running.
But is it moving forward?
Research supports this ripple effect. Studies of workplace anxiety suggest that a leader’s anxiety can interfere with employees’ thinking, increase emotional exhaustion and affect performance.
I have seen the same pattern in transformation programmes. When leaders communicate constant urgency, people stop distinguishing what really matters. Everything becomes a priority. And when everything is a priority, nothing is.
This is not limited to companies.
The coach who reacts emotionally from the touchline changes how the team plays. The NGO leader who treats every funding concern as an emergency exhausts committed people. The political leader who manufactures urgency can replace thoughtful public debate with fear. The association leader who demands immediate answers may silence the very perspectives needed to make a better decision.
Leadership sets the emotional pace of the system based on his or her own anxiety.
Pressure or Reactivity?
Genuine urgency is based on reality.
There is a clear consequence, a real deadline or an immediate risk. People understand why speed matters and what must happen next.
Emotional urgency is different.
It often becomes louder when questioned. It demands action before the problem is understood. It confuses movement with progress and pressure with leadership.
Conscious leadership is not about slowing everything down. Some moments require decisive action. A crisis is not the time for endless reflection.
But neither should every difficult moment be treated as a crisis.
Before increasing the pace, ask:
What happens if instead of increasing the pressure to move faster we concentrate in what is critical? we do not increase the speed, we narrow the focus.
Identify the real consequence of increasing pressure.
– What evidence supports the urgency?
– Separate facts, deadlines and risks from assumptions and emotions.
– What behaviour will my reaction create in others?
Specifically, consider whether you are producing clarity and focus, or anxiety and confusion.
The pause required to answer these questions may take only a minute. But that minute can prevent days of rework, unnecessary escalation and organisational fatigue.
For one week, pause before describing anything as “urgent.”. You may discover that the organisation does not always need to accelerate. Sometimes, it needs its leader to breathe.
Conscious Leadership Tip #37
For one week, before calling something urgent, ask: What happens if we wait, what evidence supports the urgency, and what behaviour will my reaction create?