High Performance Leadership

  How many goals are on your list? I've know people to have over a hundred goals on their list. That's fine. Many people have declared great success with an extensive list of goals. For me, that many goals will overwhelm me. To look at a list and see more than fifty unachieved is less than encouraging. Keep the long list if you like, but here's what I suggest:  Show to courage to focus on five top goals.  Put five goals at the top and focus on them until each one is done. Big or small, that's up to you. But leaders get stuff done. Get stuff done! -- doug smith

How many top priorities do you have? The trouble with too many top priorities is getting them done. Too many top priorities means you don't really have priorities -- just a really long list of goals. Have all the goals you want. Goals are great. I've know people who carry a list of 100 goals. They check them off one by one, and some have truly accomplished nearly half. That takes time, and feels more like a bucket list than a goals list. Top goals are what you work on first. Top goals are what you prioritize above all else. Top goals are where your results make a meaningful distance. High performance leaders show the courage to focus on five top goals. How many do you focus on? -- doug smith

I'm still looking for someone who can do everything. Every task on their list, every task on their boss's list, every goal in their endless stream of goals. I still haven't found them. I'm still looking for the person who can finish everything they've started, who can achieve any goal while tackling all goals, and who never gets nervous in the process. I still haven't found them. No one can do everything. Not even you. Chaos comes when we try to do everything. Chaos comes when everything looks like it's as important as everything else. Chaos comes, and it screams. Do you hear the screaming? Do you enjoy the screaming? Chaos screams! Prioritize. Prioritize and chaos will settle down. -- doug smith

It feels harder than ever these days to prioritize. We get pulled into so many directions it's hard to know what to do first. Every day feels like life on the edge of (or in the middle of) chaos. What to do? Common sense says priories. Decide what is most important and focus first on that. Build the future you want by working on it today. The place to start? The place to start prioritizing is with your goals. Limit how many you have. Rank the ones you have set by priority, and then focus your efforts accordingly. We all have to start somewhere. It might as well be with our goals. -- doug smith

Did you ever have someone who kept insisting on a particular deadline, whether or not the deadline made sense? I've had bosses who set arbitrary deadlines and then treated them as if they were the most important thing in the world. One in particular kept asking his favorite question, "Are you done yet?" Deadlines ARE important. What we are working on is important. Deadlines matter. But why we are doing what we are doing may determine how much effort and urgency we give to the task. Why matters. Importance is relative. Priorities are necessary so that we spend our limited time working on what truly matters most. Why is more important than when. As a leader, when you are delegating, help the team member identify why they are doing the assignment. As a highly productive, high performance leader, when you prioritize your own tasks, ask yourself why number one is number one in order of priority. Why matters. Why is more important than when. Wouldn't you rath...

Sometimes I get confused. What should I be working on RIGHT NOW? In many of the workshops that I lead, participants struggle with setting priorities. To achieve our goals, we must know our priorities, work those priorities, and somehow -- SOMEHOW -- make peace with those tasks that are NOT our priorities and left undone. It doesn't make everyone happy. That's not our job. Our job is to figure out our goals, work THEM, and achieve the goals that matter. Easier said than done, certainly, but no reason to surrender. Here's what I tell myself: figure out your goals -- then work your butt off. -- Doug Smith

Does this sound familiar? "I don't have enough time! I don't even have time to decide what to do next!" It's a familiar cry with some of the groups I facilitate. Working on their productivity, they can barely find time to work on their productivity. Start simply. Start at the top. Start where the most leverage brings the bonus opportunities: prioritize. Decide how you will decide. What makes something important to you? It's up to you. It could be your mission. It could be your faith. It could be your circumstances (gotta pay the bills!) What is it for you? Decide how you will decide and then decide. Priorize. Sound too simple? It's a place to start. What's most important in your life? -- Doug Smith

Collage by Doug Smith How does it feel to work on goals that don't matter? Frustrating! And yet we do it. Once committed (or worse, once assigned) we plug along on some goals that have lost their relevance. They don't matter. No one really cares, least of all us. What's the point? That slows us down! In my workshops I often quote Brian Tracy on setting priorities. "In order to prioritize we must have the courage to de-prioritize." No one can do everything. Since we can't do everything, we must decide what we will not do. Often, as unpleasant as it may feel, that means letting go of goals that don't matter anymore. Drop those irrelevant goals. Work on those that matter. Work on those that energize you and lead you toward your mission. Time marches on. March to the band that makes your heart beat with verve and happiness! -- Doug Smith

Can we do everything? One of my favorite quotes from Brian Tracy is "in order to prioritize, we must be willing to de-prioritize." No, we can not do everything. We must make decisions on what we will do and what we won't do. As centered, high performance leaders we must decide with authenticity and with focused attention. It's not an area where the default choice is likely to be the best choice. We must determine our priorities. It's as important to be clear about what you won't do as it is about what you will do. Are you clear in your priorities? Do you have the confidence and clarity to say "no" when you need to? Action Plan Think about your list of things to do for today. What is on that list that does NOT fit into your priorities? What is on that list that is NOT contributing to your mission or vision? Practice the clarity and courage it takes to de-prioritize those items for today. -- Doug Smith doug smith training:  how to ...

What happens when someone convinces you to let go of your priorities? Do you find the time to reshuffle them? Do you realign your work so that you achieve your goals? Or do you find that your goals get tossed aside for something that seemed important at the time and kept someone quiet. It's not your job to keep anyone quiet. It's your job to achieve your goals. Other people may lose sight of that, but you can't afford to. No one will ever thank you for abandoning your priorities. Why not set them and keep them? -- Douglas Brent Smith Interested in learning ways to achieve your goals? Want to keep your priorities in order and galvanize a team of people to help you achieve them? Why not bring our workshop Achieving Your Goals to your location? Front Range Leadership Training Supervisors for Success

As a leader, do you find yourself tempted to sidestep your priorities on occasion? Do you have prominent customers or team members who ask you to go around your selection criteria, to avoid your top priorities, and to instead prioritize their requests? While that may be occasionally necessary, I do have my doubts. There is a reason that high performance leaders set and keep their priorities. Otherwise it is all too easy to slip into a mediocre system of handling only what is right in front of your face, and missing out on your big goals. You can even miss out on your mission. Priorities are most effective when they are clearly exercised daily. High performance leaders stick to their priorities. -- Douglas Brent Smith Teleclasses and Workshops for Front Line Managers and Supervisors

If everything is urgent then nothing is urgent. Centered leaders prioritize with clarity. Have you ever had a boss who told you that everything was urgent? Everything had to be done RIGHT now, with no excuses, and no differentiation? How did that work for you? If everything is urgent, how do you know what to do? Prioritize according to your vision and mission, and the rest clarifies. What is truly important emerges from what truly matters. What matters in your vision and your mission. Most everything else is "nice to have". If everything is urgent it all becomes the same. There's no time for that. Centered leaders prioritize with clarity -- so that people truly know what to work on first. - Douglas Brent Smith http://frontrangeleadership.com