Time always seems to be of the essence for leaders, and a busy work life can easily get in the way. These ‘Leadership Wisdoms‘ words will help to clarify just what Q2 and Q1 are, as well as finding simple ways to improve a leader’s ability to deliver that role, rather than the work of others.
For those not aware, Q2 is Stephen Covey’s description of work that is Important but Not Urgent, whilst Q1 is work that appears to be Important and Urgent. The goal is to act on less Q1 tasks as soon as possible and also make sure you have enough space for Q2 work.
When you have too much work in Q1, you are in firefighting mode all the time. Literally solving urgent problems as they hit your desk, with no time for anything else. The goal is to reduce this by taking action to stop these problems occurring in the first place. When you solve the source of a problem, you get less of them and the load in the Q1 workload gets less. Ironically, finding the source of a problem and fixing that is Q2 time!
So, you have to stop the cycle of Q1 work to spend at least some time in Q2. When you do this, you have less crises and can spend more time in Q2 where the good work comes. For leaders this includes coaching, communication, developing others, planning, strategizing visioning and more. The creative longer-term stuff that can get squeezed out if there is too much in crisis mode.
The key here is to break that nasty cycle by leaving a few of the crises (often they are other people’s work and for you not that important – this is Q3 for which there is another ‘Leadership Wisdoms’ poster here).
Clearly there are some things that really are Urgent and Important, but not that many (making sure you leave the building if the fire alarm rings really is Q1 – if it happens too often, it needs fixing). Recognising how to minimise these is vital for any leader to progress.
Releasing Q2 time will enable more and more work to be done to increase it in an upward spiral of growth, rather than the downward spiral of continued Q1 work.
To download the poster, backed by the article and 5 Steps to Making more of Q2 (less of Q1) , click here.