Good Morning!
PRIORITIES - THE KEY TO ACHIEVING AN
IMPOSSIBLE AMOUNT OF WORK
I ask every CEO group I present to "How many
of you have enough time to do everything you
need to?" In several hundred presentations to
date, no one has ever said they do have
enough time. The only two answers are: to
delegate more (see my October 2007
newsletter), and/or set and stick to clear
priorities.
Every executive has some kind of
prioritization system, usually either some
paper-based methodology or a computer or
PDA-based system. Any of these systems will
work, so systems aren't the issue. The real
issue is discipline; having the
courage not to allow others to add things to
your priority list.
THE THREE SINS OF PRIORITIES
- Setting an unrealistic number of
priorities. Recently I asked a CEO group
about their priorities and how many each
person had, and one CEO looked in his PDA and
said he had 192 items on his priority list. I
don't have to know anything more to know that
these cannot possibly be "priorities." As
someone once said, "If everything is
important, nothing is." Most of us can handle
a maximum of 5 true priorities at a time and
often 3 are better, especially if they are
really important ones.
- Setting priorities that are really "keep
the lights on" issues. Priorities should be
just that; those items that are most critical
to the company and/or CEO in moving the
company forward. Some things, like preparing
the budget in Q4 are "keep the lights on"
(unless it is the first time the company has
done one). Typical company and CEO priorities
have to do with executing the strategic plan
and moving the company from good to great.
These are really the most important things to
focus on.
- Allowing others to hijack our priority
list. Once we have set our priorities,
nothing should ever get added unless
something comes off, i.e. an item is
completed or the new item is more important
than one of the current items on our priority
list. Too often, someone mentions a problem
to us and our reaction is to make a note to
look into the issue, when what we should say
is "That does sound like a problem; what are
you going to do to resolve it?" No one gets
to add things to my priority list!
As CEOs, we can never allow others to hijack
our priority list. If we do, how in the world
can we remain focused on the true priorities
of the organization and the things we
must focus on to make them happen? I am often
asked by CEOs what are the most important
duties or priorities for a CEO, and I always
had the following four in each of the
companies that I led:
- Set the direction for the company
- Get the right people in place and develop
them
- Make sure my executives had the resources
they needed to get their jobs done
- Help remove obstacles that were
preventing them from doing what they were
being paid to do
For a brief whitepaper on Priorities which
you can download for your team, click on:
Priorities: The Key to Achieving an Impossible Amount of Work
Best regards,
Jim Alampi
Alampi & Associates LLC
phone:
248.349.6045
