Episode 008: Why Smart Leaders Keep Losing the Day to Urgent Work | The Intentionality Intensive
Here is a number that has stayed with me since I started running the IMPACT Leadership Assessment: 68%. That is the percentage of leaders assessed who have Act with Intentionality (AWI) as their primary development gap. Not one of their gaps. Their biggest one. Across industries, across roles, across experience levels.
If you have ever felt like you are working hard but not necessarily on the right things, there is data to back that feeling. And in this episode, I want to dig into what is behind it, what it is costing you, and what I am building to close that gap.
Act with Intentionality is not about effort. Most leaders work hard. It is about whether your daily actions are aligned to your most important priorities, whether you are protecting time for strategic work or constantly firefighting, and whether the people around you can predict what matters most to you based on how you actually spend your time.
This episode goes deeper than the April 2026 issue of The Leadership Hub newsletter. If you caught that issue, this is where the data comes to life. If you are new here, I will bring you up to speed.
What You'll Learn
• Why Act with Intentionality is the most common primary gap across all leaders assessed, and why that is not a motivation problem
• The five specific behaviors that define intentional leadership and how leaders score across each one
• Why high-urgency, high-performance environments are structurally designed to make intentional leadership harder
• What the Calendar as Leadership Tool behavior actually means, and why it has nothing to do with the app on your phone
• What the Intentionality Intensive is, how it is structured, and who it is built for
• How to know if this cohort experience is the right next step for you
Key Takeaways
The Data Behind the Gap
68% of leaders assessed through the IMPACT Leadership Assessment have Act with Intentionality as their primary development gap. The average AWI score is 16.8 out of 25, compared to 21.9 for Influence with Integrity. 37% of leaders fall in the critical focus range, below 15 out of 25. Operators and team leaders score nearly the same, which suggests this is not a seniority or experience issue. It is structural.
The Five AWI Behaviors
• Daily Priority Practice: Starting each day with clear priorities rather than reacting to whatever comes up
• Weekly Alignment Check: Regularly evaluating whether daily actions align with the most important goals
• Strategic Time Protection: Protecting time for strategic work rather than constantly firefighting
• The Strategic No: Saying no to good opportunities that do not serve the highest priorities
• Calendar as Leadership Tool: Ensuring your intentional plan, whether digital or on paper, reflects what actually matters most
Calendar as Leadership Tool: An Important Clarification
This behavior is not about having a color-coded digital calendar. It is about whether your intentions are somewhere visible, whether you are making a deliberate plan, and whether that plan reflects your actual priorities. A notebook you use to write your top three priorities every morning counts. A daily planner that drives your decisions counts. The question is whether the tool you use is a leadership tool or a reaction log.
Why the Environment Makes This Harder
High-urgency, high-performance environments reward reactive speed. Leaders get recognized for being available, responsive, and present. Those habits work in the short term and become a liability over time. The leaders who score lowest on Act with Intentionality are not unfocused. The environment keeps winning. And no one has handed them a framework for pushing back against it.
The Intentionality Intensive
A 30-day cohort experience built specifically to close the Act with Intentionality gap. Four live weekly sessions. Practical tools tied to each of the five AWI behaviors. A tight group of peers navigating the same pressure. Real accountability built in. The four-week framework:
• Week 1: Name It — Honest self-assessment of how reactive your leadership actually is
• Week 2: Claim It — Defining your highest priorities with precision so daily decisions have something real to align to
• Week 3: Protect It — Building systems that defend your priorities in environments that will not stop pulling at you
• Week 4: Own It — Making intentionality a leadership identity, not a season
Limited to 12 participants per cohort. Runs two to three times per year. Individual investment: $297.
Is This Cohort for You?
Ask yourself these questions:
• Do you regularly end the week feeling busy but not sure you moved your most important work forward?
• Do you know what your priorities are, but your calendar, planner, or daily plan does not reflect them?
• Do you find yourself saying yes to good things and quietly losing ground on the right things?
• Does the urgent stuff consistently win over the important stuff, and you are not sure how to fight back against that?
• Have you read the books and know the concepts, but the behavior has not changed?
• Do you lead a team and sense that how you spend your time is sending a message to everyone watching, and you are not sure that message is the one you intend?
If any of those landed, you should be in the room.
Action Steps
1. Subscribe to The Leadership Hub on LinkedIn for monthly leadership insights tied to the IMPACT Assessment framework.
2. Spend five minutes this week auditing your last three days. For each of the five AWI behaviors, ask: where did the environment win? Where did I lead on purpose?
3. If you recognized yourself in today's episode, get your name on the waitlist for the Intentionality Intensive before registration opens.
4. Share this episode with a leader on your team or in your network who you know is caught in reactive mode. Sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is hand someone the mirror.
Resources Mentioned
• The Leadership Hub — The monthly LinkedIn newsletter where I introduce leadership concepts tied to the IMPACT Assessment.
• The Intentionality Intensive — 30-day cohort experience for leaders ready to close the Act with Intentionality gap. Reserve your seat or get on the waitlist: amplifyingimpactevents.com/intensive
• IMPACT Leadership Assessment — The assessment that measures leadership effectiveness across six elements: Influence with Integrity, Multiply What Matters, Pursue Clarity and Excellence, Act with Intentionality, Cultivate Growth, and Transform Through Service.
• Jodie Hylkema Coaching — Jodie works with leaders and teams at the intersection of life and leadership, helping them clarify what is really going on, align their strategy with their values, and grow through the moments that actually matter.
Bring This to Your Organization
The Intentionality Intensive is available as a private team cohort for organizations that want to close the Act with Intentionality gap across an entire leadership team. If you are a business owner or organizational leader and you see this gap in the leaders around you, that is exactly the conversation I want to have.
Reach out directly at events@amplifyingimpactevents.com or visit amplifyingimpactevents.com to start the conversation.
Connect With Mark
• Website: amplifyingimpactevents.com
• Podcast archive: amplifyingimpactpodcast.com
• LinkedIn newsletter: The Leadership Hub
• Email: events@amplifyingimpactevents.com
• Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube
Quotes from This Episode
"68% of leaders assessed have Act with Intentionality as their primary gap. Not one of their gaps. Their biggest one."
"I know what I should be doing. I just never get to it. That sentence is the gap. Not a lack of knowledge. Not a lack of motivation. A structural problem."
"The environment keeps winning. And no one has handed them a framework for pushing back against it."
"The question is not what tool you use. The question is whether your intentions are somewhere visible, whether you are making a deliberate plan, and whether that plan reflects your actual priorities."
"This is not a course. It is not a video library you will get to someday. It is a structured, communal experience designed to produce actual behavior change."
"The world does not need more leaders who know better. It needs leaders who lead differently."
Episode 007: 7 Leadership Lessons from an Ultra Marathon
What does a 12-hour trail race have to do with leading a high-performing team? More than you might expect.
In this episode, Mark Watkins takes you inside his journey from non-runner to ultra marathoner, culminating in the Firefly Ultra Trail Race in the mountains of North Carolina. 42 miles. 7,000 feet of climbing. 12 hours on his feet. And a set of leadership lessons that didn't come from a book, a keynote, or a leadership development program.
They came from the trail.
This is not a running episode. It is an episode about preparation, mental resilience, adaptability, and the kind of resolve that gets built long before the pressure arrives. Whether you have ever run a single mile or you cannot imagine why anyone would want to, the lessons in this episode translate directly to how you lead, how you prepare, and what you do when things stop going according to plan.
Episode 007 also sets the stage for what is coming next: a new series that reflects the same principle that drove every mile of this race, that the best insights often come from looking far outside your own context.
What You'll Learn
How Mark went from non-runner to ultra-marathoner in under two years
The systematic training approach that made race day a foregone conclusion
Why not quitting is not a personality trait. It is something you build in preparation.
The 7 leadership lessons drawn directly from the experience, in Mark's own words, from the trail
Why is adaptability not the absence of a plan? It is the ability to protect the goal when the plan breaks down.
How running alone without earbuds for hundreds of miles became one of the most important leadership development practices of the year
Why the darkness of lap 12 gave Mark something the daylight hours could not
A preview of what is coming next in the Amplifying Impact Podcast
Key Quotes
"What are my limits, and when I find those limits, how will I respond?"
"What is the story you want to tell tomorrow?"
"Adaptability isn't the absence of a plan. It's the ability to protect the goal when the plan breaks down."
"Perseverance isn't something you summon in the moment. It's something you build in the preparation."
"You don't always know who is watching. But someone is. And the standard you hold yourself to has a reach that extends well beyond you."
"Preparation doesn't just build fitness. It builds resolve."
"You don't rise to the occasion. You fall back on what you've already built."
"The training had already made the decision for me."
Your Action Steps This Week
Identify the preparation gap: where are you improvising under pressure because you have not built the familiarity to perform automatically?
Ask yourself, "What is the story I want to tell tomorrow?" and let the answer determine how you respond to the hard thing in front of you right now.
Look at your goals. Are they specific enough that you would know in real time whether you are on track or off?
Consider which of the 7 lessons is your biggest leadership gap, and what one action this week would start to close it.
If you have not taken the IMPACT Leadership Assessment, now is the time to get the data-driven picture of exactly where to focus.
Resources Mentioned
Run Eliteby Andrew Snow: triphasic training model used for race preparation.
75 Hard: the 75-day mental toughness challenge that launched Mark's running journey.
Sally McRae: ultra runner whose question, "What is the story you want to tell tomorrow?" became a defining mental anchor.
Firefly Ultra Trail Race: the 12-hour event in Hendersonville, NC, that serves as the backdrop for this episode.
Donny Hinds and Zack Eschler: Mark's crew for the race. Their presence at the crew tent every lap was a defining factor in the outcome.
IMPACT Leadership Assessment: referenced in this episode as the structured tool for identifying your specific leadership development focus.
Connect & Continue
Podcast Archive: amplifyingimpactpodcast.com
Events & Workshops: amplifyingimpactevents.com
LinkedIn Newsletter: The Leadership Hub
Email: events@amplifyingimpactevents.com
If this episode helped you see leadership differently, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or a rating on Spotify. It helps other leaders find this content, and it means a lot to know this work is making a difference.
About Amplifying Impact
The Amplifying Impact Podcast delivers field-tested frameworks for leaders who want to create exceptional experiences, develop high-performing teams, and lead with purpose. Hosted by Mark Watkins, founder of Amplifying Impact Events, each episode provides actionable insights and practical tools rooted in decades of hospitality leadership experience, translated for leaders across all industries.
"Leadership is better when we lift each other up. Until next time, keep amplifying your impact, and remember, the world needs the unique leader that only you can be."
Episode 006: The Intentional Leader: Character, Strategy, and Capacity
What if the reason your leaders aren't developing isn't a motivation problem — it's a map problem?
In this episode, I introduce a framework that changes how you see leadership development: the three dimensions of the IMPACT Leadership Assessment: Character, Strategy, and Capacity. Most leaders know they need to grow. Few have a clear picture of where they actually stand and what to focus on first. This episode gives you that picture.
We unpack how the six IMPACT elements: Influence with Integrity, Multiply What Matters, Pursue Clarity and Excellence, Act with Intentionality, Cultivate Growth, and Transform Through Service, map to three core dimensions, and why the intersections between those dimensions are where real leadership performance lives or breaks down.
You'll also hear about the ten leadership profiles that emerge from the assessment, and why one assessment can generate three distinct levels of feedback: for the leader, for the people leading them, and for the organization.
In this episode:
Why leadership development fails when leaders try to work on everything at once
The three dimensions of the IMPACT Leadership Assessment: Character, Strategy, and Capacity
How the intersections between dimensions reveal what's driving your leadership — and what's limiting it
The ten leadership profiles and why personalized feedback changes everything
A limited-time offer for individual leaders ready to get their clearest picture yet
The Engagement Pathway
If The Leadership Hub newsletter is where you first encountered the IMPACT framework, this episode is the next step. And if today is your first exposure, the newsletter is where the conversation starts. Subscribe at LinkedIn and search The Leadership Hub.
The podcast goes deeper than the newsletter. Live events and workshops go deeper than the podcast. If you're ready to move beyond insight and into transformation, that's where we go to work together.
Limited-Time Offer: IMPACT Leadership Assessment: $199 through April 15, 2026
Through April 15, 2026, I'm offering the full IMPACT Leadership Assessment to individual leaders at $199, $50 off the standard rate. This includes the full assessment and scored profile, a one-on-one debrief session, a proprietary development tool matched to your specific gap area, and 90 days of follow-up support and accountability.
This is the same assessment and process I use with organizational clients. If you've been wondering what it looks like to actually take it, now is the time.
Get started at amplifyingimpactevents.com/impact-assessment
For Business Owners
If you have leaders on your team who need this kind of clarity and development focus, the organizational version of this assessment goes even deeper. Reach out directly to start a conversation about what that looks like for your team.
Email: events@amplifyingimpactevents.com Website: amplifyingimpactevents.com
Resources Mentioned
IMPACT Leadership Assessment: amplifyingimpactevents.com/impact-assessment
The Leadership Hub Newsletter: LinkedIn
Full Podcast Archive: amplifyingimpactpodcast.com
Amplifying Impact Events: amplifyingimpactevents.com
Episode 005: System of Systems - Building Organizations That Run Without You
What if most organizational chaos isn't a people problem; it's a systems problem? In this episode, I introduce my System of Systems framework, a cyclical methodology for building organizations that run proactively instead of reactively.
You'll discover why perfect systems aren't the goal (complete systems are), how to make your processes person-agnostic so they don't depend on specific team members, and the three-state determination framework that turns every piece of feedback into actionable system improvements.
Whether you're drowning in operational chaos or trying to scale your leadership impact, this framework will help you move from firefighting to building organizational muscle that lasts.
What You'll Learn
The six-step System of Systems framework that creates organizational excellence
Why a basic documented system beats a perfect system that's still in your head
How to identify unconventional feedback sources you're currently missing
The three-state determination process: Create, Update, or Hold Accountable
The person-agnostic test that reveals exactly where your systems have gaps
How to reach "Steady State" where your organization runs without constant intervention
Episode Segments
The Problem: Why Organizations Run Reactively
Introducing the System of Systems Framework
The Feedback Revolution: Sources You're Missing
The Three-State Determination Process
Building Person-Agnostic Systems That Actually Work
Call to Action & Implementation Steps
Bring This Framework to Your Organization
Ready to move beyond chaos and build systems that create consistent excellence? The System of Systems workshop brings this framework directly to your leadership team with hands-on implementation.
We don't just teach theory. We help you build your actual systems in real time. You'll leave with documented processes, a repeatable framework, and a culture shift where leaders actively seek feedback for improvement.
Download for free our System of Systems Cycle Infographic
Schedule a consultation: www.amplifyingimpactevents.com
Email us: events@amplifyingimpactevents.com
Connect With Mark
Podcast Archive: www.amplifyingimpactpodcast.com
Events & Workshops: www.amplifyingimpactevents.com
LinkedIn Newsletter: The Leadership Hub
Email: events@amplifyingimpactevents.com
Episode 004: Delegation Readiness Matrix
Are you stuck doing work that someone else could handle? In this episode, I introduce the Delegation Readiness Matrix—a practical tool for evaluating what to delegate, when to delegate it, and how to develop your team's capabilities through strategic delegation.
This is the second episode in our six-part series on the IMPACT Leadership Assessment Framework. If you scored lowest on "Multiply What Matters," this tool will help you break free from the bottleneck you've become and start building organizational capacity that scales.
Episode 003: The 360 Leadership Assessment - The Mirror You're Afraid to Look Into
You think you lead with integrity. Your team experiences something different. The gap between your intentions and your impact is costing you influence, and you can't fix what you can't see.
In this episode, Mark Watkins introduces the 360 Leadership Assessment, a powerful tool for exposing leadership blind spots and creating systematic change. This is episode one of a six-part series exploring practical tools for each element of the IMPACT Leadership Assessment Framework.
Episode 002: The IMPACT Leadership Assessment Framework
Leadership development often fails because it lacks systematic frameworks for assessment, growth, and accountability. In this episode, Mark Watkins introduces the complete IMPACT Leadership Assessment Framework - a comprehensive system that transforms leadership capabilities through six interconnected elements designed to create lasting behavioral change.
Bonus: The Ripple Effect of Leadership
Every leader creates ripples. Discover how your daily choices either multiply excellence or spread chaos throughout your organization. A motivational setup for Episode 002's complete IMPACT Leadership Assessment Framework.
Introduction to the Amplifying Impact Podcast
It all begins with an idea.
In this introductory episode of the Amplified Impact Podcast, Mark Watkins discusses the shortcomings of traditional leadership development methods, emphasizing the need for systematic implementation over mere information. He outlines his approach to leadership, which focuses on proven frameworks applicable across industries, and highlights the importance of developing habits and systems that drive sustainable performance.
Episode 001: Ditching SMART Goals
It all begins with an idea.
Traditional goal-setting frameworks focus on outcomes while ignoring the most important part: the capabilities you build along the way. In this inaugural episode, discover why SMART goals fail most people and how the H.A.S. Analysis framework (Habits, Actions, Systems) provides a superior approach to quarterly planning and goal achievement.