When it comes to leadership development, many leaders have good intentions – but intentions alone are not enough. Without a proactive focus, even the most well-meaning leadership development efforts can be overshadowed by daily operational pressures, leaving little time to nurture future leadership.
That’s where a simple yet powerful strategy for leadership development, like the Eisenhower Matrix, can provide much-needed clarity and structure. If applied thoughtfully, it can help align leadership behaviours with long-term business objectives and shift the focus from constant firefighting to intentional growth.
Time is often described as a leader’s most valuable resource, but how often do we evaluate whether we’re using it to strengthen leadership competencies, support employee engagement, or build the next generation of leaders?
The Eisenhower Matrix is widely recognised as a time management tool, helping prioritise tasks by urgency and importance. But what if we reimagined it not just for personal productivity but as a leadership development framework, guiding leaders to allocate time toward coaching, mentoring, and creating learning opportunities that align with both culture and business needs?
In this article, we’ll explore how this tool can expose gaps in your leadership development program, why development activities are often neglected, and, most importantly, how you can use it to develop skills, embed accountability, and support business continuity through a sustainable leadership pipeline.
What is the Eisenhower Matrix?
The Eisenhower Matrix, also known as the Urgent-Important Matrix, separates tasks into four quadrants:
- Q1: Urgent and Important – Crises, deadline-driven work
- Q2: Not Urgent but Important – Planning, relationship-building, development
- Q3: Urgent but Not Important – Interruptions, unnecessary meetings
- Q4: Not Urgent and Not Important – Time-wasting activities
When applied to leadership development, it becomes a powerful lens through which to view how leaders are actually spending their time, and what’s being neglected.
How Leadership Development Often Appears in the Eisenhower Matrix
Most leaders are familiar with the Eisenhower Matrix, a simple but powerful tool that categorises tasks into four quadrants:
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Q1: Urgent and important (crises, deadlines)
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Q2: Important but not urgent (planning, relationship building, leadership development)
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Q3: Urgent but not important (interruptions, unnecessary meetings)
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Q4: Neither urgent nor important (distractions, busywork)
When leadership development is neglected, time tends to accumulate in Q1 and Q3:
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Leaders constantly firefight urgent operational issues.
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They attend back-to-back meetings, many of which add little value.
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They rush through performance conversations – or avoid them altogether.
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Coaching, mentoring, and succession planning – all Q2 activities – are continually deferred.
Research by McKinsey highlights this common trend: organisations often prioritise immediate operational needs over the longer-term investment of developing leadership capabilities, despite knowing it’s critical for future success (McKinsey, 2022).
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Why Leadership Development Gets Overlooked
Several reasons explain why leadership development slips off the radar:
Pressure for short-term results means many business leaders are rewarded for immediate outcomes rather than for building future capability or investing in long-term leadership development plans. As a result, strategic initiatives such as skill development or succession planning are frequently postponed.
Lack of clear ownership is another issue—leadership development can be viewed as an HR initiative rather than a shared leadership responsibility. When it’s treated as an isolated leadership program rather than an integrated part of business strategy, it fails to gain traction.
The culture of constant busyness further compounds the issue. Being overloaded is often mistaken for productivity, even when this comes at the cost of developing key leadership competencies or preparing new leaders for future leadership roles.
Research from the Centre for Creative Leadership (CCL) shows that while many organisations believe they’re creating a leadership development strategy, few have a structured leadership development plan in place. Without dedicated time, coaching, or learning opportunities, the result is predictable:
- No clear pipeline of current and future leaders when senior figures step down
- Over-reliance on high performers without supporting leadership training
- Disengagement among rising talent and new skills left undeveloped
- A lack of alignment between leadership behaviours and broader business challenges
Without deliberate focus, even the most well-intentioned leadership development training efforts fall short, leaving organisations exposed when it matters most.
What Great Leadership Development Looks Like Through the Eisenhower Matrix
When leadership development is treated as a priority, the Eisenhower Matrix looks dramatically different:
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Q2 activities dominate: regular coaching conversations, proactive succession planning, mentoring emerging leaders, career development discussions.
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Q1 activities reduce: because stronger teams mean fewer crises.
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Q3 and Q4 activities are minimised: because the leader is focused, deliberate, and empowers others to take responsibility.
In high-performing organisations, leadership development is woven into the daily fabric of work, not seen as an ‘extra’ task.
Forbes emphasises that “great leaders spend most of their time developing others, not doing the work themselves” (Forbes, 2024).
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How to Use the Eisenhower Matrix to Boost Your Leadership Development Strategy
Here’s how you can use the matrix to elevate leadership development at your organisation:
1. Audit Your Calendar
Look back over the past 4 – 6 weeks.
How much time have you genuinely invested in Q2 activities like coaching, mentoring, and talent development?
Ask:
– How much time have I spent in Q2 activities?
– When did I last coach a team member?
If it’s less than 10% of your time, it’s time for a reset.
Tip: Book recurring time slots for 1:1 coaching conversations and career development discussions, treating them as non-negotiable.
2. Block Q2 Time for Leadership Development
Proactively carve out at least one hour per week for people development activities.
Protect this time just like you would protect a meeting with a key client.
Book recurring time slots for:
– Weekly one-to-ones
– Mentoring conversations
– Reviewing development plans
– Succession planning reviews
According to Gallup, managers who spend intentional time developing their people see higher engagement and performance levels (Gallup, 2023).
3. Delegate Q3 Activities
Identify urgent-but-unimportant tasks you can delegate to others.
This frees up your bandwidth to focus on higher-impact leadership work.
Identify what’s urgent but not important and pass it on. Ask:
– Is this task developing my people or just keeping them dependent?
– Could someone else handle this better as a development opportunity?
Empowering others through delegation is itself a leadership development opportunity.
4. Be Ruthless About Q4
Eliminate activities that neither serve your operational goals nor your leadership development aims.
Ask Yourself:
– Do you really need to attend that meeting?
– Are you using LinkedIn intentionally or numbing out?
– Could you bundle admin tasks into one block?
Free up mental space to lead.
5. Connect Leadership Development to Organisational Success
Frame leadership development not as a ‘nice to have’ but as a business-critical necessity.
Strong leadership pipelines reduce operational risk, increase innovation, and drive future growth. For more see this article, 8 Strategies for Leadership Development
Treat Development as a Project
Many leaders fail to develop others because they treat it as an add-on. Flip this mindset. Make it a strategic project.
– Set a goal: e.g. “By Q3, I want two team members ready to step up.”
– Use OKRs or SMART goals to drive progress.
– Celebrate development milestones, not just business KPIs.
6. Start Small and Build Habits
You don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. Start with one Q2 leadership development habit:
– A fortnightly mentoring coffee
– Monthly feedback sessions
– Quarterly development check-ins
Consistency matters more than intensity.
The Hidden Risk of Ignoring Q2
If you continually defer Q2 leadership development activities, you are setting a slow-burning fire inside your organisation.
According to Harvard Business Review, organisations that fail to invest in leadership development are more vulnerable to crisis, talent attrition, and poor financial performance (HBR, 2024).
Here’s what tends to happen:
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No one ready to step up: When key leaders leave, gaps appear that can’t easily be filled.
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Burnout and mistakes: Key players are overburdened, leading to errors and morale problems.
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Talent drain: High potentials leave when they see no future development opportunities.
Ultimately, ignoring Q2 doesn’t just postpone development—it undermines your ability to build effective leadership and adapt leadership styles to meet evolving organisational demands. What feels like a short-term trade-off becomes a long-term liability.
Final Reflection: Leadership is About Growing Others
One of the simplest but most powerful leadership truths is this:
“Leadership is not about you. It’s about growing others.”
Using the Eisenhower Matrix deliberately can help you live this out daily.
- Prioritise development conversations.
- Make leadership growth part of your culture.
- Protect your Q2 time fiercely.
If you want a thriving leadership pipeline, it doesn’t happen by accident – it happens because you made it important enough to act.
Want to build a stronger leadership pipeline in your organisation?
At The Ethical Leader, we help leaders create long-term success through intentional, values-based development strategies. Let’s talk about how to shift your focus from urgent to important – and build the leadership team you need. Simply get in touch and arrange a free Insight Call