‘Our priorities need prioritisation’ - how many times have you felt this? Ambitious, high performing organisations always see new opportunities to say ‘yes’ to - and find it hard to say ‘no’ or to stop work in progress.
Our teams can be overwhelmed by multiple priorities at home and at work … grow the core business, build new growth platforms, personal development, build teams, support the communities we operate in … and the list goes on.
The tension teams and individuals face is how to balance the most precious commodity of all - time - while delivering all these priorities before their next performance review.
Like the circus act balancing spinning plates on sticks, it’s doesn’t take too many plates before they start falling when the performer can’t get back to them in time to spin the plates up again. It can leave our teams frustrated and demotivated when they see their plates falling and feel powerless to make changes.
To set our teams up for success, prioritisation is important - but it will only unlock performance when the outcome is simplification and focus.
Here are three ways to simplify and focus priorities:
- Develop a shared understanding ‘what is important’ and ‘why it is important’ to delivering your strategy - and use this to understand ‘what is not critical’ and ‘why it can be stopped’. Successful leaders recognised that strategy is about making choices, and managing the consequences of these choices, in order to increase the probability of success.
- Understand where your teams need clarity on priorities and what challenges they face achieving their objectives before their time runs out each week. Successful leaders don’t just set and cascade priorities, they listening to their teams and co-create a winning plan together.
- Build commitment to the simplified priorities, ensuring the team can focus and is confident they can deliver. Successful leaders share responsibility for embedding priorities by using questions that engage, energise and empower teams - ‘Have we simplified your priorities ?’, ‘Will this give you the focus you need ?’, ‘What else do you need to succeed ?’
Next time you’re leading a review with your team, don’t just ask them if the priorities are clear - ask them if you have simplified their priorities, that they feel focused and are confident that they can deliver.