The “P” word for leaders – Priorities
(This is the “P” installment of the series, “Alphabet for Leaders.”)
“There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do.” Freya Madeline Stark
Ever wish you had more time? Who hasn’t? However, if you don’t have priorities, creating more time won’t help. You’ll end up just as over-booked, over-worked, and over-whelmed as you are now.
Truth is I feel good when I’m busy. Actually, I feel more than good. I feel secure, useful, and important. Are we sending a subtle message when we say we are busy? Do we need busy-ness to prove our worth?
“It’s incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it’s leaning against the wrong wall. It is possible to be busy – very busy – without being very effective,” Stephen Covey.
If life is about doing things then priorities point to things that must be done. Perhaps more importantly, priorities point out “good” activities to leave undone.
“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least,” Goethe.
A person with priorities does what matters.
A person without priorities does what is urgent.
Time management begins with priorities that protect you from the tyranny of the urgent. One enemy of a priority driven life is email. My reading indicates leaders spend at least 40% of their time working out of their inbox. “If you are working off your inbox you’re working off the priorities of others,” Donald Rumsfeld.
Furthermore, Priorities express values, mission, and vision. Most importantly, the “big three” always explain your impact on stakeholders, employees, and customers. In a word, priorities are about people.
If you’re like me you need to make establishing priorities a priority.
How do priorities impact your daily life?
What are the steps to establishing priorities?
What other “P” words can you offer leaders?
*****
Note: The life circumstances of some LF readers may require them to live exhausting lives simply to stay afloat. In this case, your priority is survival. You have my respect.
Dear Dan,
Prioritizing relieves stress and un-prioritizing increases stress. Prioritizing also increases efficiency and output. The person who prioritize his work, get time for almost all activities , on the other hand not prioritizing stops you to get time even for mundane activity. The other fact is that busy people are mostly organized and they manage time for everything but busy without business people dont have time. In organizations, there are people who look busy but with no real output and these people come early and stay longer even after working hours. And generally, this category of people say ” I don’t have time”.
The steps to prioritize is to organize. It is time management and it is possible when you have control over your mind. That means prioritizing is nothing but mind management.
The other P of leaderships are: process, potential, performance, primary, proud, price, prime, proactive, profound,present,prune,put off, postpone, pamper etc.
Leadership is a process of journey that primarily depends upon potential, performance of a leader. He should proud in his belief,actions and people. He should believe in present, use past to shape future. He should not post pone or put off the work that can be done today.
Ajay,
First, you offer a preponderance of principles! (I hope I’m using those words right)
Second, thanks for brining up the idea of stress relief. Good point. I’ll add that learning to say now may create stress but its a good stress that alleviates other stresses.
Thanks for all the great leadership P’s
Cheers,
Dan
Ajay is a featured commenter for the LF community. Read his bio at: http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/featured-contributors/
Ajay, what do think of this reframe? Prioritizing increases eustress and un-prioritizing increases distress.
It seems we tend to demonize the global ‘stress’ word when, in fact, stress is part of life and is vital for life, just depends on which kind and how much.
As leaders, we would want to tap into eustress, that positive stress that envigorates in ourselves and in others and manage the distress for all. I would not say eliminate the distress, in some instances it is needed to implement change.
Dear Doc,
I agree to your point. Eutress is always good and it usually brings
positive and expected outcomes whereas stress brings negative
and unexpected outcomes
Regards
Doc and Ajay — your vocabulary perplexes me. I had to go look up eustress. 🙂
Dan,
You offer great insight on leadership. I love your comment that we need to make establishing priorities a priority. That hits the nail on the head for so many of us. Thank you for sharing.
All the best,
Chris Paulsen
Christian,
Thanks for leaving your first comment on LF. I appreciate the good word. It’s encouraging.
Hope to see you again soon,
Dan
Fully agree on impact of lack of prioritization, but disagree with Ajay that it is primarily about time or mind management. Priorities need to start with strategy. As a client of mine said, “We have no bad ideas. We just can’t do them all. It’s easy to manage our time around the ones we choose to do, but which ones should we choose?”
That starts with insight, conversation, and alignment around mission, vision, values, and objectives, then translating them into strategies and tactics, then cascading them down into each person’s project list.
You do all that right, and prioritizing becomes easy.
Dear Friedman,
I agree that priority starts with strategy. I believe that strategy is nothing but steps taken or plan made. Planning is nothing but conceptualising and then organising. And organising comes from thought process which surely
is the outcome of organised mind. This is my belief.
Aligned closely with priorities and principles would be Perspective. Leadership requires that individuals maintain and keep obtaining a Plethora of perspectives on the organization’s Path and Progress.
Leadership, when successful, is a Partnership and a never-ending Pursuit which requires ongoing Planning.
Leaders also need to be aware of Proxemics, literal and figurative.
The literal or spatial element implies Presence…the leaders must be Physically Present or, really, who/what are they leading?
The figurative Proxemic relates to vision, mission and values–does the leader Position her/his interactions so that each action planfully aligns with VMV? If there is a disconnect with what is said versus what is done, then there is a Problem. The Praxis needs to match the Presentation. Okay, walk the talk…
That’s my pluralism. And if I were a Pirate, I guess I have to wait til Wednesday…Rrrrgh!
Doc,
As I was writing today’s post I was thinking about how you might propogate “P’s” in your comment. I’m loving this series because of the great comments.
Thanks for bring your particular, peculiar, sometimes pleasantly pernicious perspective to these posts! (Dang, I’m plum worn out)
Cheers,
Dan
Doc is a featured contributor of Leadership Freak. Read his bio at:
http://leadershipfreak.wordpress.com/featured-contributors/
Hi Dan… this is a great reminder. I loved the insight about how busyness can make is feel important. I think that is so true for so many people today. I’ll be adding Leadership Freak to my own blog roll, if that’s o.k. (http://theexecutiveroundtable.wordpress.com
Glain,
Thanks for the good word and your generous offer to put Leadership Freak on your blog roll. I’ll definitely reciprocate.
I am glad you left a link to your blog.
Enjoy,
Dan
Hello Dan,
I have been a keen reader of LF and this happens to be my very first comment posted.
My view is that there is enough time in the world for everyone,the fact is people enjoy procastinating and as the saying goes procastination is the thief of time.
Adam,
Thank you for leaving your first comment on LF and thanks for being a keen reader. I appreciate it!
You are spot on… there is enough time in the world. To think otherwise is to reject the world as we know it.
I’ll add that not only does procrastination steal time but busy-ness in the wrong things also steals our time.
I hope you’ll keep coming back,
Dan
Patience. Perseverance. Proactivity.
Hi Dan
Persistence is an important word. Persisting for becoming the best. Persisting others to reach their goals.
Also, perhaps my favourite leadership word: PLAY
People Love Acting Young … is a good acronym for it. After the hard work comes the rewards, and the play time. And it’s important to be able to socialise with your staff, and celebrate the wins. It can help establish a connectivity with others you might not know so well. It can also help you be seen in a more positive light with colleagues.
As leaders 9% of what we say and do affects staff. Conversely, 91% of how we behave and act affects them. So play … and connect!
Kind Regards
Mark
Good post. I tell a lot of my coaching clients that: “there is no such thing as time management…there are only priorities.”
I am reminded of Hummel’s “The Tyranny Of The Urgent.” Priorities are the filter that helps us place the items in our lives into the appropriate categories.
For those that have priorities, it is an easy task. For those without…
Hi Dan!
I’ve been an avid follower of your posts. I couldn’t resist not commenting because this post elegantly hits home for so many of us. I like to also think of it this way, “whatever we focus on … we are serving.”
One of the big areas I find in coaching organizations, more often than not, is an unitentional drift away from basic “focus”. For instance, a whole department can become easily reactive and distracted with trying to “be all things to all people” in the organization. You’ll see talented folks just skipping across hectic, meeting packed days with “busyness” happening but with a lack of core empowerment. They struggle to place their real talents deeply enough into meaningful work and this is costly to an organization. And why I”m also so amazed when I hear folks downplay the value of leadership focus and organizational development work inside companies.
I like my folks to go through “role clarification” and “alignment” discussions with their upline and downline to get those valuable priorities front and center – and then load balance their jobs the right way.
Great post. I went ahead and featured this on my LinkedIn Group – the Connected Leader – I also welcome you to join this group!
Best
Amy
Amy,
Speaking of elegant. Your comment is power-packed. Thank you for leaving it.
Your support is encouraging. Success to you.
Best,
Dan
Hi Dan,
What ever you have written is very true. Without priorities, the time just passes without any results being delivered. It is so easy for the leaders to get caught in the day to day operational activities that they might lose focus on the key result areas, unless they prioritize.
I feel this is an important topic and so I posted a blog called “two imple ways to get things done” to help people get the work done. link: http://stickyideas.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/two-simple-ways-to-get-things-done/
Will kepp reading and thanks for providing useful information as always. Keep up the good work for us to read and get benefited.
Cheers
Mouli
Mouli,
Thank you for adding to the conversation. And thanks for leaving a link that extends the conversation.
I look forward to reading more comments from you.
Cheers,
Dan
A very timely message this morning. My focus at the moment is prioritizing! Whilst developing myself as a professional speaker, I’ve had to stop writing books for a moment for the sake of the bigger picture. Thank you.
Tosin,
I think its wise to make making priorities a priority.
Best,
Dan
I don’t believe I saw the other common “P” word… Perfection! In the grand scheme of life not everything has to be done perfectly, perfect is a perfect time waster! How many extra hours, weeks, months or years have been wasted trying to get something perfect? I’m not saying managers shouldn’t expect a lot, they should… But sometimes we need to step back and look at the big picture… Something to think about.
Nicely said Bonnie… thank you
It is important to balance putting out fires with working on making your vision come to life. There is management by objective, management by walking around, and management by exception. They are all important. It’s your job to find the right balance. Keep up the good work.