Clarify Your Priorities

Every day as leaders we get pulled in many directions. This is normal and, at times, very frustrating. Whether we like it or not, there are endless demands on our time and our attention. It comes with the job, and it rarely is the best part. Still, we can do one unique and challenging thing to handle it. We can proactively clarify our priorities.

Over the years, I have heard many people say that clarifying priorities is simple, but I have not found this to be the case at all. Every day people arrive with problems that need to be solved. Every day we do our best to manage and, at times, just cope.

Upon much reflection, I have come to the conclusion that to manage our priorities we first need to step back from the day to day issues and focus on the bigger picture, particularly the bigger picture at home. In this part of our life, I encourage people to define their priorities in the following areas: health, marriage, family, home and community/friends. Having these categories helps people name one to three things per category, and start to put many things back into perspective.

Second, at work, we also need to define the categories, e.g. people, team, strategic direction, operational excellence, etc.. Again, it is the categories that take the overwhelming task of prioritization and breaks it down into manageable areas of focus and clarification.

This week, define the categories that work best for you and then begin to define 1-3 priorities per category. This will take time but it is worth the investment when life just gets busier and busier with no end in sight.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

The Connection Between Strategic Direction and Day to Day Operations

These days some people in leadership and management positions are running around like chickens with their heads cut off. They have not a clue of where they are going and what they should be focused on. Still, they are very busy and very intense.

The best middle managers I have meet are the exact opposite. They are grounded and they are clear. They know where they are going and they know what are their priorities. This happens because they are clear about the connection between strategic direction and day to day operations.

In the world of operations, good managers are focused on their existing customer base and they communicate clearly to their front line service supervisors and employees about what needs to be done when it comes to product delivery and service support. They also make sure the supply chain is focused on supporting the sales force and the on-time delivery of products. They know they need to consistently improve what already exists as this is the cash generating part of the business. 

Between managing the current budget and resources, these managers improve behaviors related to production and service delivery. This may involve the development of better skills, structure, goals, and systems in order to improve the ways we serve existing customers. This is the sole focus of day to day work.

On the other hand, they can also help prepare the organization for the market of tomorrow, i.e. the strategic direction. Here, as much as possible, they assist in on-boarding the next generation of high growth opportunities that are already in the R&D pipeline. They also focus on closing the gaps between current competitive strengths and tomorrow’s competitive requirements. Building new core competencies in alignment with the strategic direction is important work.

One way they manage the challenge of day to day operations vs. strategic level work is their ability to clarify priorities. Many years ago, the late Stephen Covey wrote a book called First Things First. In it, he offered a successful approach to time management which described a framework for prioritizing work that is aimed at long-term goals, at the expense of tasks that appear to be urgent, but are in fact less important. In his four square model, classifying tasks as urgent and non-urgent is on one axis, and important or non-important is on the other axis. His quadrant 2 has the items that are non-urgent but important. These are the ones he believes we are likely to neglect; but, should focus on to achieve effectiveness. Here is a link for more details about this approach: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Things_First_(book)

When we as managers are clear about the connection between day to day operations and strategic direction, then we can be more effective and efficient in all we do.

Geery Howe, M.A. Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer in Leadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational Change Morning Star Associates 319 - 643 - 2257

Key Skill Sets For Young Leaders

Years ago someone shared with me a simple truth: “We don’t know what we don’t know.” It is common for young leaders to have no reference point for what to do next in certain situations, because they often encounter many situations that are new to them. Still, with the right kind of coaching and learning, they can overcome these challenges and end up doing well in the midst of these challenges. The key is to teach them four key skills.

First, we need to help young leaders learn how to create and clarify direction. This sounds simple and yet may be the most difficult skill to learn. A good place to start is to have a young leader read the following book: Blanchard, Kenneth, Donald Carew, and Eunice Parisi-Carew. The One Minute Manager Builds High Performing Teams, (Wm. Morrow and Company, 1990). In this very quick read, one learns that leaders use different skills to handle different situations. The authors also give a nice foundation about how to create and give direction.

Second, young leaders need to learn how to prioritize. The fastest way to do this level of learning is to review with them Stephen Covey’s model for putting first things first. It begins with learning how to differentiate between what is urgent and what is important. Click on this Wikipedia link and you can learn a lot more detail about how this works: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Things_First_(book) Here is a YouTube video on the subject as well: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-357998200076562861 Helping young leaders understand what are the “big rocks” as presented in the YouTube video will help them learn how to prioritize.

Third, many young leaders do not know how to coach. They also have not received much good coaching over the course of their career, too. In the beginning, we need to educate young leaders that there are two kinds of coaching, namely transactive coaching and transformational coaching. The former focus on the teaching of key skills and the later is about developing a specific mindset. Both are important. The key in the beginning is to be more mindful of when we are doing which kind of coaching.

Fourth, we need to teach them how to resolve issues. For starts, I encourage all young leaders and those who are coaching them to read the following book: Patterson, Kerry, and Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler. Crucial Conversations: Tools For Talking When Stakes Are High (McGraw-Hill, 2002). I have yet to meet people who were born to deal with conflict well within the work place or home. Yet, with some key information from the aforementioned book, they can get better at dealing with these issues. It also is important for young leaders to know that avoiding toxic people issues will cause more problems than dealing with them. They also need to know that not dealing with misaligned systems will also cause major problems.

Every day, successful, young and experienced leaders learn something new. However, after visiting with them for many decades, I can assure you that every one of them is good at the following four skill sets: giving direction, clarifying priorities, coaching people, and resolving problems. These skills are the foundation of successful leadership and management.

Geery Howe, M.A.Consultant, Executive Coach, Trainer inLeadership, Strategic Planning and Organizational ChangeMorning Star Associates319 - 643 - 2257