When Everything Matters Nothing Leads

When everything starts feeling important, leaders can slowly lose sight of what actually matters most.

That usually doesn’t happen because a leader stops caring. It happens because the urgent gets loud. The loud gets attention. And over time, things that were never meant to lead start getting equal weight with the things that actually move the mission forward.

In this episode of The Ember Well Leadership Podcast, we talk about what happens when leaders start reacting to everything instead of protecting the center. We dig into how noise starts crowding out vision, why “busy” is not always the real issue, and how repeated urgency can quietly pull a team off course.

We also walk through practical leadership filters to help you decide what actually deserves your attention, your energy, and your leadership weight. Because if every issue gets treated like the mission, the mission eventually gets buried.

If you have been moving nonstop but still feel like the most important things are not getting led, this episode is for you.

When everything matters, nothing leads.

Protect the Vision. Strengthen the People. Guard the Culture.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Emberwell Leadership Podcast, where we protect the vision, strengthen the people, and guard the culture. I'm Ian Sharman. And if you're leading in a world full of pressure, noise, and reaction, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Emberwell.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Hey everyone, my name is Ian Sharman, and I'm here with my friend Judy Schwaggerly, and we are excited to be with you for another episode of the Emberwell Leadership Podcast. Judy, today we're going to talk about vision. And it's very important to have a vision. It's very important to track whether we're accomplishing our vision. It's very important to make sure our vision and our values align. But sometimes vision can be elusive.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yeah. When people lose their vision, it's usually not because they've stopped caring. They lose it because they start giving equal weight to things that never deserved it in the first place.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Yeah, you know, we constantly have a barrage of things that want our attention, right? There's emails, there's clients, there's staff members, there's family obligations and obligations outside of the work and the team that we're leading. But we constantly have a lot of things that's wanting our attention. And these things can just kind of get to a spot where they're feeling urgent all the time. But if those things are what's leading you, you kind of have the loudest thing going on in your life being what the leader is, not actually your vision and moving things forward. And this isn't some like big productivity issue. This is a leadership issue.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

Yeah, the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and the louder the squeak, the more attention we end up paying to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Right. And that can just be frustrating because you kind of feel like you're the hamster on the wheel, right? You're you've got a lot of movement going on, but not a lot of activity happening.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

And that's why people sometimes think the problem is busy. Oh, I'm too busy to get to the things that really are going to drive our vision forward.

SPEAKER_01 1:44

Yeah, you know, when this is going on, you know, I was working with a team one time and they said, you know, you've got to name it detain it. So what is the thing that's making you go on, that's making you lose track of your vision? Is it um is it because you're feeling like you're busy, like Judy said? Um, you know, sometimes leaders, you know, they love to put things in scapegoat roles for this, you know, like to say it's a lack of time, it's a it's a staffing issue, right? Let's blame it on the staff. It's gotta be their fault. Um, is it pressure, right? We all feel pressure, or is it too many expectations? Judy, sometimes those are real frustrations.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Yes, definitely. But underneath it all, the deeper issue often boils down to we haven't really decided about what gets our weight and what doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yeah, it's you know, we kind of get this game of follow the leader going on. The the leader of the team goes to this place of urgency, and everybody who's under them does the same thing. And it's kind of like there's a lot of movement, there's a lot of productivity. Sometimes you have people just doing a lot and they're they're good things that they're doing, but are they getting to the vision with where you need to go? Today I want to look at how do we distinguish what's loud versus important? I kind of have a power five question list for you today of things to look at. So the first one, does this clearly connect to our mission or priorities? So if somebody brings something to you, Judy, in your leadership roles, have you had a lot of things kind of brought to your desk and brought to your attention?

SPEAKER_02 3:04

Definitely. And you kind of have to sit back and say, is this an issue that has to rise to my level? Or is there somewhere along the line that I can empower people to take on this issue themselves?

SPEAKER_01 3:14

Yeah, absolutely. So when it comes to you, does this clearly connect to our mission or priorities, or is this a second or third tier thing that might need to wait for a while? Then, second, you know, what happens if this waits? Now, I am not saying that everything can wait. In fact, some things would be very dangerous, it would be destructive to your organization, and it could hurt people if it waited. But I think as a leader, you need to look at what would happen if this waited? If I didn't deal with this right this second, is there gonna be some big colossal emergency? Or can I go back and um come back to this at another time? Third, is this truly important or is this just loud? And that's a big thing, right? Sometimes it's literally loud, sometimes it's figuratively loud, right? Is this something I've got to deal with right away? And fourth, like Judy mentioned, does this require my level of attention? Is this something that I have to deal with, or is this something that I can recognize that's important, but point it on to another team member who has more, could be more expertise or more responsibility in that area. Then lastly, number five, if I say yes to this, what important thing loses space?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Because whether we realize it or not, every time we say yes to something, it means we have to say no to something else.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Yeah, that's so important because there are there's only so many hours in the day. And if I'm saying yes to one thing, that means I am saying no to something else. And here's in and going along with that space, our actions actually reveal what we value. You know, um, our team, you know, we can have a beautiful value statement, we can have it have a graphic designer come in and make it really pretty and make it look nice, but your team knows what your values are. You know, you might say that you value culture, you value excellence, you value mission, but here's the deal: your team's watching what gets your time, what behaviors are allowed to be repeated, what are the things that get protected? What are the things that get tolerated? What's getting interrupted, and what's getting dropped when the pressure arises?

SPEAKER_02 5:15

Yeah, when it comes down to your actions or your words, we know that actions always speak louder than words.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

And to your team, they really speak louder than words. Um so do your actions match the importance you say your vision holds or not? And if it isn't, what is? Um on Emberwellleadership.com, we have some tools for you if you want to explore that further with your team. Um, so then another thing to look at is are your visions and your values aligned? Because here's the thing Vision answers where we're going, what do we want to do? But values answers how are we going to interact with each other when we get there? And here's the thing: if you're sacrificing your values constantly, people are gonna recognize it.

SPEAKER_02 5:58

And they can tell that it's not governing your leadership, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

Um, so you know, and that thing, the team can get mixed signals, the culture becomes difficult, there's no strong line or everything. So, how do we protect the vision? Uh, I want to go through some leadership resets because sometimes as leaders, we need to just, you know, stop for a second, push the pause button, and go from there. Um, I had a really busy week this week. So on Tuesday night, I came in and I just kind of set the pause in my classroom. And I'm just like, okay, I need to look at some things. I've got some big things coming up. I need to just kind of reset, refocus, and re-examine. I spent a few hours getting things ready and I walked in the next day feeling really good. Um I came home the next night and I was a better parent. I was more focused on my kids, and I did much better kind of keeping things organized. Have you had those days too, Judy?

SPEAKER_02 6:51

Oh, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Yeah, so let's look at some resets that we can do to kind of make sure we're doing that. So the first one is name what matters most. If you feel successful at the end of the day, end of the week, end of the month, and the end of the next two months, it's hard to really look beyond that if we're we're looking at you know day-to-day type things, but what will success look like in there and what will make you feel successful as a leader? Because if you can't name it, your team can't name it, and you can't protect it. If you've not named the center, you can't protect the center. Judy, have you got into a space when you've been in that place before?

SPEAKER_02 7:27

Yeah, um when again it goes back to that whole idea, like especially for me checking my emails, because I start answering this, and then that reminds me, oh yeah, I was supposed to do that. And then, oh yeah, that reminds me I need to do this. And pretty soon you're running like a hamster on the hamster wheel, but now something shiny. Yes, and not really moving things forward.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So then, or second reset, audit your calendar, your attention, and your energy. What's getting most of those things? You know, where is your actual leadership weight going? What are the things that you're energizing? What are the things you're spending time on? I believe from the deepest of my inside, you know, time everybody thinks time is the most important resource for a leader. Time, time, time, time, time. We don't have time, we don't have time for this, we've got to look at this, we've got to spend time here. Time is important, but it's not the most important things. If you're a leader and you want to move something forward, you have to be able to energize things. What are you putting energy around? Um, and as you're energizing, what's getting your time? What's getting your emotional energy? What are the things that are keeping you up at night? Because if you're looking at, if you're staying awake at night thinking about things that aren't really pertaining to your vision, how are you able to get the energy to focus on what really matters?

SPEAKER_02 8:39

Right. When you start thinking about what's getting my immediate response, if it's all the little things that drains you, and then you don't have the energy left to go after the big things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

What keeps getting repeated in meetings? We've all heard that saying before, death by meeting, right? What are those things that keep getting repeated in meetings over and over again that really aren't pertaining to the vision? And do you need a new strategy to address those things so you can move forward and see what's going on? Uh reset number three, what are the repeat distractions? Are there a repeat offender that keeps doing this? Is it a is it a process? Is it a person? Is it a situation? Um, what keeps pulling the team off of center? And if it is a member of your team, they may have a blind spot and not realizing they're doing it. Sit down with that person and have a real conversation with them and see how you can help and say, you know, talk about what's causing the distraction.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Yeah, as a science teacher, one of the concepts they talk about is momentum. And once you get the ball rolling, what are those things that you know get in your way that form the pitfall that sends you off course?

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Exactly. Um, what keeps becoming urgent that should have been filtered earlier? Sometimes if we'd have dealt with the problem right away, right? It's the old band-aid thing. You can rip a band-aid off your knee. Uh, my mother-in-law, God bless her, came over last night and my daughter had a huge splinter in her foot. And she went in there, she got the tweezers, she got her nails, she did the grandma special and got the splinter out. You can either spend all day getting the splinter out or you can get the splinter out fast. Choice is yours. Um, reset four, find the root cause, not just the symptoms. We were talking about this with the situation we were dealing with earlier today, Judy, where we've got to look at, you know, what's the bigger picture? What's causing the distraction or the problem or the conflict and what's going on? And do we need to be refocused? It could be that sometimes you have to reset your vision a little bit, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

Yeah, I think about, you know, if you make the analogy with a medical issue, you know, if all you do is treat the symptoms and then you take this pill to fix that, and then take this other pill for the new sis symptom that that caused, all you do is end up chasing things around. So you really have to have a clear vision of where are we headed and how do we fix it rather than just manage it.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah, and you've got to see, you know, what's what what's driving that issue? Is it a system, a person, boundaries, fear? Um, sometimes it could be our fears that are drowning things, and we're having a blind spot. So what are those things? And then lastly, sometimes you've got to rebuild the filters. Um, you know, when you something new comes up, what are those questions you ask? First thing, you know, does it align with the mission? Does this require my level of leadership attention? Is this urgent or is it just loud? What if we're not responding immediately? And are we acting or are we leading? And leaders, there is a big difference between those two things. Next, I would like to just um kind of give you guys a closing challenge for today. I want you to look at this. What is getting too much of your leadership weight right now? What has been treated like the mission that's not actually really the mission? And where have I allowed noise to stand too close to the center? And where do I need to recenter immediately? Sometimes we need to just take that immediate stop and deal with what the problem is that that's taking place. And that takes guts to do it. This is definitely not for the faint of heart, Judy.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

Oh no. You definitely have to look in what you're doing, look at what your team's doing, and then find out how do we move forward from here.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yeah, just because something is just the loudest thing in the room does not necessarily mean it should be leading the room. Thanks for joining us, and welcome to the Emberwell. Thanks for joining us. We would love to hear more about you and what's going on in your organization. To connect further, please uh check in with us on Facebook or on our website, Emberwellleadership.com.