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Everyone wants high performance.

But somewhere along the way, we confused it with constant motion.

We glorify speed, reward urgency, and fill every white space on the calendar, until responsiveness becomes reactive, and responsiveness becomes exhaustion.

At Russo Leadership, we see this pattern all the time:

• Teams sprinting without strategy
• Leaders firefighting instead of leading
• High performers silently burning out while being praised for their "grit"

Let’s be clear: urgency is not the problem. Unexamined urgency is.

Sustainable performance doesn’t mean slowing down.

It means knowing when to drive, when to recover, and how to lead from clarity instead of adrenaline.

The Urgency Trap

Urgency is seductive.

It feels productive. It looks like commitment. And in the short term, it gets results.

But over time, here’s what unchecked urgency does:

• Kills strategic thinking
• Discourages healthy pushback
• Destroys psychological safety
• Makes burnout look like loyalty

Worse, it creates false signals of performance:

• “They’re so responsive.” → They're afraid to log off.
• “They go above and beyond.” → They don’t know how to say no.
• “They never complain.” → They’re quietly checking out.

If urgency becomes the norm, your best people will either burn out or break trust, and you won’t see it until it’s too late.

High Performance ≠ High Pace

If your team is always moving fast but rarely asking: “Is this the right thing to be doing right now?” then performance is already compromised.

High-performing teams don’t move at maximum speed all the time.

They move at the right speed, based on:

• Priority
• Context
• Capacity
• Strategic timing

The goal isn’t less work.

It’s smarter pressure, applied at the right moments, with the right recovery built in.

4 Ways to Reset the Pace

Want to model sustainable performance? It starts with how you lead pace.

1. Make Pausing a Leadership Move: 

Pace setters don’t just go fast. They know when to pause and reset.

Try saying:

“Before we act, let’s take five to check: what’s the actual priority here?”

That one pause can prevent days of misalignment, rework, or avoidable stress.

2. Don’t Just Clear the Path—Clarify It

Urgency thrives in the absence of clarity. So make clarity your operating system:

• Define success upfront
• Set realistic timelines based on current capacity
• Challenge false deadlines

The best leaders ask:

“What does done look like—and when does it actually need to be done?”

3. Build Slack Into Systems

Slack isn’t laziness. It’s strategic margin.

If everything is maxed out all the time, there’s no room to:

• Innovate
• Think critically
• Absorb surprises

Build in buffer, not as luxury, but as design.

4. Celebrate Sustainability, Not Just Hustle

Shift your praise patterns.

Instead of only saying:

“Thanks for getting that done so fast,”

also say:

“Thanks for flagging that we were pushing too hard. That helped us avoid burnout and do it better.”

When you celebrate wise pace, you teach your team that their value isn’t tied to constant output, it’s tied to discernment and discipline.

Slow Is Not the Opposite of High Performance

Urgency can be useful.

But when urgency becomes identity, leadership becomes reactive.

Sustainable performance isn’t about being always on. It’s about knowing when to turn it off so you can be fully on when it counts.

Your team doesn’t need heroes.

They need pace-setting leaders who know how to create clarity, protect capacity, and model what real performance looks like over time.

Want to Redesign Your Team’s Pace?

We help leaders:

• Audit their urgency traps
• Build capacity rhythms that match strategy
• Model clarity-driven leadership across teams

📩 Explore performance coaching with Russo Leadership →