Get Your Priorities Straight!

What are your priorities today? You may have a task list, you may have meetings lined up, but what are your real priorities? Lately, I have been amazed at the answers I get when I query executives about their priorities. Many utter a reference to "objectives" that sounds good, but soon they discover that their answers do not clarify what their priorities are that day. They often are not clear on what actions they need to focus on today that will lead to success tomorrow.

The second revelation is the massive amount of "disconnects" there are within companies over what the top priorities are, or should be. In training sessions I often focus on aligning their priorities in order to achieve their strategic goals. I will take executives through a discovery exercise that goes like this-

I ask the group to list their top 3 priorities. I then ask them to get with the person that they report to or with their teammates with whom they work most closely. They compare their priorities and guess what? Over 50% of the time they do not match! Over half the time their priorities may be completely different than those around them. Do you think this might cause some "disconnects?" Imagine, the person that you report to thinks you should be working on "X" and you are working feverishly on "Y." Do you think someone may be disappointed? There is a huge misalignment here, and it is all based upon assuming that everyone knows what is important, the real priorities. Do not assume! Ask, verify, and realign!

Business runs at a frenetic pace as you well know. Things pop up daily that divert your focus and therefore your priorities. Over time you can lose sight of the real priorities that lead to the achievement of the bigger goals that you have established. It all comes down to continual communication about what is important and what has changed on the landscape that may have shifted your priorities.

Steve Pinchotti, COO of Altum, Inc., states- "The leadership in every company must set clear objectives and priorities and review them on a frequent basis. Having the discipline to maintain a priority list enables you to handle new initiatives with minimal disruptions. The expectation that all workers can and will achieve extraordinary results is not realistic unless they know what to work on first."

Do not wait for your review, or board meeting, etc. to discover that there was a misalignment of priorities. Check with your team and those around you to make sure that everyone constantly knows what the priorities should be. If you and your team have your priorities in sync, the more successful, and happy, you will be.

Seize the day!