The Eisenhower Matrix is a productivity tool attributed to President Eisenhower. The tool helps leaders prioritize the urgent and important. This tool appears to be making a comeback. I’m seeing it more and more as we seek to manage our smoldering to-do lists and general burnout exacerbated by the lengthy pandemic period.

 I have one big issue with the matrix. The bottom left  quadrant shows the solution for “Urgent + Not Important” is to “Delegate It.” This is the wrong mindset for a leader, and such an important one to get right since the ability to delegate is critical for any leader’s growth.

 Leaders don't delegate what's unimportant. They delegate what is better done by someone else based on skills and personal growth opportunities. 

 Think of delegate as delegrow. If you believe you're giving people the crappy, unimportant work you don't want to do, those doing the work think of it as crappy, unimportant work. 

 My antibodies to this part of the matrix may seem like semantics on the page. But, delegation is a mindset and a heartset. Leaders do not dump unimportant work on others.