Following Through on Priorities
It's not hard to set priorities. It's also not very hard to assign people ownership of those priorities. Most of you probably already do that. My clients all do that. Those things aren't hard. What is hard is actually moving forward on those priorities. What's difficult is holding people accountable for those priorities. What's difficult is making sure that you're not shifting focus in the middle of the quarter to say "Well, I know I said this is a priority, but now I need you to do these 4 other things as well."
When you set priorities, but then you don't focus on committing and moving forward to those priorities, the whole planning process becomes a joke. It impacts your productivity, it impacts your morale, and it impacts the whole culture of the leadership team. So I want to give you a few ideas on how to make sure you're doing a better job of really following through on those priorities.
Number 1: Set the right time frame. The time frame I like to use with my clients is 90 days. The problem with setting priorities for a year and then just moving forward on them is too many changes within a year. Within 3 to 5 months the world changes, and the priorities you set may have shifted. So while I do think it is important to create annual priorities, what we really need to hold our team accountable for are 90-day priorities, which I call rocks. In 90 days, the world is typically not going to change all that much, and in 90 days there's a real sense of urgency to get something done versus a year, where there's just too much time to screw around before you get focused on that goal. So number 1, 90 days is a great time frame, but pick the time frame that makes sense to you.
Number 2: A priority should have a results-focus. A priority should not be to put a new recruiting process in place. That's a task focus. That's a means to an end. What do you really want the result to be of putting that recruiting process in place? Maybe it's to hire 85% A-players. Your priority is not to put a plan in place to sell a new product. The priority should be to bring in some amount of new revenue for that product. When you make your priorities task-focused, there's a tendency to do a lot of work without actually seeing the result. When you make your priorities results-focused, then you can focus on doing whatever it takes to get that result.
Number 3: Instead of using the word goal or priority, use the word commitment. When people use the word goal, you might go around the table and your weekly meeting and say, “You had a goal of 5 meetings with key decision makers per week, how did you do on that?” “Well, I've only been doing 3.” Well when it's a goal, it sounds like well, I've been trying but I've only done 3. Change the language and make a commitment. You committed to 5. How many are you doing? Well, I'm only doing 3. What happened to the commitment? That simple change in language means people are promising, people are committing, versus just setting a goal and hoping to make it.
Number 4: Learn to say no. This is one of the biggest problems my clients tend to have. How often do you have a set of priorities, as a leader or as a leadership team, but then something else comes along and you shift focus? Not only do you shift focus, but those other things are still priorities. You need to learn to say no. So something critical comes in - some new opportunity, some new challenge - I'm not saying don't look at it, but what I am saying is, you need to ask the question: if we're going to say yes to this new idea, this new set of activities, what are we going to say no to? If I say yes to this, what am I going to say no to? That's critical because what that will cause you to do more often than not, is make sure that those priorities you set at the beginning of the quarter stay as those priorities and you don't lose focus and lose accountability. Then there are going to be times, probably exceptions, where that new challenge or that new opportunity comes in and that is more important. So by saying yes to this, what am I saying no to? It forces you to make a decision. Not just to add more work on, but make a decision on what's most important.