When you’re leading a team, juggling competing demands can make it hard to step back and see the bigger picture. Urgent tasks pile up, important work gets delayed, and your day feels reactive instead of strategic.
That’s where the Leadership Priority Matrix comes in.
This simple yet powerful tool helps you identify what truly matters, so you can lead with focus, clarity and intent.
What Is a Leadership Priority Matrix?
The Leadership Priority Matrix is a visual framework that helps you organise your workload based on two factors:
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Importance – How critical is this task to your long-term goals?
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Urgency – Does this task have an immediate deadline?
Tasks are plotted into four quadrants:
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High Importance, High Urgency – Do now
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High Importance, Low Urgency – Plan and protect time for this
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Low Importance, High Urgency – Delegate or minimise
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Low Importance, Low Urgency – Consider removing
How to use it in just 30 minutes
Spend just half an hour completing the matrix. Here’s how:
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List your current tasks – Write down everything you’re working on.
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Plot each task – Place each item on the matrix based on its urgency and importance.
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Review your priorities – Focus your energy on what matters most and rethink what can be delayed, delegated or dropped.
This short exercise can bring surprising clarity. You’ll quickly see where your time is going—and whether it’s aligned with your leadership goals.
Why it works for leaders
Using a leadership priority matrix helps you:
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Stop firefighting and start forward planning
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Communicate priorities more effectively with your team
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Make better decisions about time, focus and delegation
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Protect time for the work that drives long-term impact
Ready to use it?
Download our Leadership Priority Matrix Template below. Right-click the image and save it, then grab a pen and start plotting your tasks.
If you found this useful, you might be interested in one of our other templates:
