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    You are here Home » time management

    Managing Priorities: A Key to Leadership Success

    Last updated on Apr 26, 2018 by Dan McCarthy · This post may contain affiliate links

    Guest post from Martin Lanik:

     
    As a
    leader, do you scramble to get your work done at the very last minute or tend
    to cram the night before a big meeting? 
    Are your team members often confused about what to do and unable to complete
    their assignments on time?  These
    problems can usually be solved if you learn to improve one very important
    leadership skill:  managing priorities.

     
    Without
    clear priorities, you will struggle to get anything done, because everything
    will seem equally important and you won’t know how to most effectively spend
    your time and energy.  Similarly, when
    your team doesn’t have clear priorities, individual members will struggle to coordinate
    their efforts. They will feel overwhelmed by all the work coming their way and
    the team will generally lack an understanding of what needs to be accomplished.

     
    Four Steps to
    Managing Priorities

    Managing
    priorities means identifying which tasks are most important and allocating
    appropriate time to accomplish them. In our extensive research and testing of
    nearly 800 executives for my book THE
    LEADER HABIT
    , my team and I discovered that there are four behaviors that
    effective leaders practice when they prioritize:

     
    1. They break
    down the larger project into smaller tasks and assignments that are clear,
    concrete, and actionable, so that everyone knows exactly what to do.

    2. They
    divide the tasks into more and less critical pursuits, for example identifying
    what needs to get done straight away vs. what can wait until tomorrow.

    3. They
    look at each task and assignment and estimate how long it will take to
    accomplish; the time estimates are realistic and comfortably achievable.

    4. They
    base priorities on a solid, logical rationale, so that everyone understands why
    a particular task is more important than others.

     
    5-Minute Leader Habit Exercises to Turn Managing
    Priorities into a Habit

    Once you
    understand that the four behaviors described above are the key to managing
    priorities, you will need to internalize them for yourself, turning them into
    habits.  Based on our finding that it
    takes 66 days to turn a behavior into a habit, we have created four simple
    exercises that will help you improve your ability to manage priorities.  Below are the four exercises.

     
    Break down
    projects into tasks.

    Although
    you probably won’t start a new project every day, you can get in the habit of
    breaking down your daily tasks into smaller action items using this exercise: After
    picking a task from your to-do list, write down 2-3 things you need to do to
    complete the task.
    For example, if one of your tasks today is to create a
    presentation, your two action items could be to create the slides and then
    write the speaker notes.

     
    Divide your
    tasks into more and less critical pursuits.

    You can get
    in the habit of doing this behavior by starting your workday with this simple
    exercise: After sitting down at your desk to start your workday, write down
    the 2-3 most important tasks you must complete that day.
    Of course, you
    should work on these tasks before anything else.

     
    Allocate
    appropriate time for completing your work.

    This
    behavior requires you to make an accurate estimate of how much time it will
    take you to complete a given task. Without accurate time estimates, it is
    difficult to plan your work and complete it on schedule. To turn this behavior
    into a habit, practice this exercise: After adding a task to your to-do
    list, write down your estimate of how long it will take you to complete the
    task.
    For example, you might estimate that it will take 30 minutes to draft
    an email informing your team about a new client project.

     
    Be clear why something is a priority

    When prioritizing projects or tasks, make your rationale for the
    decision clear to yourself and others on your team. Use the following exercise
    to practice this behavior on a daily basis: After describing a project (in
    an email or a conversation), briefly explain why it is a priority by saying,
    “This is a priority because ...”
    For example, you may prioritize a project
    because it is for your largest customer.

     
    At work, managing priorities is crucial to implementing new business
    strategies or aligning your team with an existing one.  The same is true for situations when you are
    charged with improving products and services. 
    If you cannot readily break down larger projects into smaller tasks and
    prioritize them, you will struggle to bring your team’s activities into line
    with the organization’s planned objectives. 
    By making a habit of managing priorities, you will be well on your way
    to improving your skill as a leader.

     
    Martin Lanik, Ph.D., author of THE
    LEADER HABIT,
    is the CEO of Pinsight®, a global leadership software-as-service
    company known for its disruptive HR technology. His leadership programs have
    been implemented by more than 100 companies – including AIG and CenturyLink –
    and have received awards from Chief
    Learning Officer
    and Brandon Hall. 
    Lanik holds a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology from
    Colorado State University.  You can learn
    more at: 
    www.pinsight.com.

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