Episode 008: Why Smart Leaders Keep Losing the Day to Urgent Work | The Intentionality Intensive

Apr 20

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."