Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and Gola gving.
Speaker 1: This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host
Speaker 1: Paul Fellavaledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode six point fifty one. The most healing thing
Speaker 2: you can do is stop living like everything is an emergency.
Speaker 2: Listen to that again in your mind, because if you're
Speaker 2: a leader, especially a high performer, there's a strong chance
Speaker 2: you are operating like every email is urgent, every phone
Speaker 2: call is critical, every meeting is life or death, and
Speaker 2: every mistake is catastrophic. And that pace will quietly destroy you.
Speaker 2: I've worked in environments where real emergencies happen, sirens, radios,
Speaker 2: flash lights, command posts, decisions that actually change outcomes in minutes.
Speaker 2: I understand urgency. I understand pressure. And most of what
Speaker 2: you are dealing with today is not that it feels urgent.
Speaker 2: It is not. And when you treat everything like an emergency,
Speaker 2: three things start happening. First, your nervous system never resets.
Speaker 2: You live in a constant state of elevated stress. Cortisol
Speaker 2: stays high, your breathing stays shallow, your tone gets sharper,
Speaker 2: your patience gets thinner. You are physically present but mentally scattered. Second,
Speaker 2: your team starts mirroring you. If you move fast, they sprint.
Speaker 2: If you panic, they panic. If you send late night
Speaker 2: emails marked urgent, they assume everything is on fire over time.
Speaker 2: That creates a culture of reaction instead of a culture
Speaker 2: of strategy. Third, you lose perspective. When everything is labeled,
Speaker 2: nothing actually is real. Red key moments get buried under
Speaker 2: routine noise. Let me say that clearly, when everything is
Speaker 2: an emergency, nothing is. One of the most disciplined leadership
Speaker 2: skills you can develop is the ability to classify your
Speaker 2: moments correctly. Green light routine, yellow light important but not urgent,
Speaker 2: red light high consequence, time sensitive act. Now, most leaders
Speaker 2: are operating with everything stuck on red. That's not strength.
Speaker 2: That is miscalibration. Here is what happens when you stop
Speaker 2: living like everything is an emergency. You start thinking again.
Speaker 2: You begin asking better questions instead of reacting to surface noise.
Speaker 2: You pause before responding. You notice patterns instead of chasing problems.
Speaker 2: You look ahead instead of staring at the immediate inbox.
Speaker 2: Your clarity returns your team also chain. They begin to
Speaker 2: trust that when you say something critical, it truly is.
Speaker 2: Your words regain weight, your tone carries intention instead of tension,
Speaker 2: and there's healing in that. Healing does not mean you
Speaker 2: become passive. It means you become precise. Leaders who treat
Speaker 2: every issue like a five alarm fire eventually burn out
Speaker 2: their credibility. Their people stop feeling urgency because they're numb
Speaker 2: to it. You cannot run an organization in permanent crisis
Speaker 2: mode unless it is actually in crisis, and even then
Speaker 2: you need structured calm. I want to give you something
Speaker 2: tactical today. Here's a simple practice you can implement starting
Speaker 2: tomorrow morning. Before you open your email, before you respond
Speaker 2: to a text, before you jump into a meeting, take
Speaker 2: two minutes and ask yourself, is this truly urgent? Or
Speaker 2: does it feel urgent? Because I've trained myself to respond instantly,
Speaker 2: That question alone will change your leadership posture. Now let's
Speaker 2: go deeper. Why do leaders live like everything is an emergency?
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's ego. Being needed feels powerful, Responding instantly feels important.
Speaker 2: Speed creates a sense of relevance. Sometimes it's fear, fear
Speaker 2: of missing something, fear of looking slow, fear of being outperformed.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's a habit, years of reactive behavior that went unchecked,
Speaker 2: And sometimes, especially for high achievers, it's identity. You built
Speaker 2: your reputation on being the first to respond, the one
Speaker 2: who fixes everything, the person who never drops the ball.
Speaker 2: That identity can quietly become your prison. You do not
Speaker 2: have to be in a constant sprint to be effective.
Speaker 2: In fact, the strongest leaders I know move with deliberate calm.
Speaker 2: They are not rushed, They are not frantic, They are
Speaker 2: not sending panic through the room with their body language.
Speaker 2: They assess, they classify, they decide. That is red key discipline,
Speaker 2: recognizing when a moment truly carries weight and when it
Speaker 2: is routine noise. If your team sees you flinch at
Speaker 2: every small issue, they will lose confidence in your judgment.
Speaker 2: If they see you measured, in composed, even when something matters,
Speaker 2: they feel steadier leadership is emotional transfer. Your pace becomes
Speaker 2: their pace. If you want a healthier organization, you need
Speaker 2: a healthier operating rhythm. So let me give you a
Speaker 2: practical framework. Create three categories for your daily work. Category
Speaker 2: one truly time sensitive and high consequence. Category two important
Speaker 2: but can wait. Category three administrative noise. Commit to spending
Speaker 2: the majority of your day in category two. That is
Speaker 2: where strategy lives. That is where improvement happens. That is
Speaker 2: where culture is shaped. Category one should be rare. If
Speaker 2: category one is your default, you're either misclassifying, underplanning, or
Speaker 2: tolerating chaos. And that brings us back to healing. The
Speaker 2: most healing thing you can do is stop living like
Speaker 2: everything is an emergency. Healing for your nervous system, healing
Speaker 2: for your team's morale, healing for your credibility. You cannot
Speaker 2: lead well if you're always bracing for impact. There is
Speaker 2: a difference between being alert and being alarmed. Alert leaders
Speaker 2: are aware, Alarmed leaders are reactive. You get to choose
Speaker 2: which one you are. So if this episode hit you today,
Speaker 2: here is your seven minute challenge for the next week.
Speaker 2: Label your moments green, yellow, and red. Write it down.
Speaker 2: If you have to force yourself to classify instead of react,
Speaker 2: watch what changes in your tone, your breathing, and your clarity.
Speaker 2: Leadership is not about moving fast all the time. It's
Speaker 2: about moving right at the right time. Stop living like
Speaker 2: everything is an emergency. You will think clearer, You will
Speaker 2: speak calmer, and you will lead better. This has been
Speaker 2: the seven Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com