Led away from exceedingly awkward pressing need (8)
I believe the answer is:
exigency
'pressing need' is the definition.
'led away from exceedingly awkward' is the wordplay.
'away from' suggests deleting specific letters.
'awkward' indicates an anagram.
'exceedingly' with 'led' taken out is 'xceeingy'.
'xceeingy' is an anagram of 'EXIGENCY'.
(Other definitions for exigency that I've seen before include "Sudden unforeseen need" , "Urgent need" , "crisis" , "Demand" .)