Leaders In Motion
August 2008
A periodic “ah hah!” for Executive Leaders & HR Professionals, compliments of Visioning In Action
An inside peak:
Prioritizing is a CORE leadership skill. Is your day driven by filler fluff'n stuff or by fulfilling essential values? Stop the treadmill of dissatisfaction and experience a deep sense of fulfillment at the end of every single day of your professional and personal life. Teach your team and leaders how to prioritize and practice effective time management too.
Next issue: "How to Develop an Olympic Attitude in Your Team: Lessons Learned from Beijing"
Value-driven Priorities: the Key to Effective Time Management
Prioritizing is a CORE leadership skill.
Many of us spend our day making a list of things we have to do, then running around chasing these items. Life intervenes, other people interrupt, and a plethora of technology brings us a stunning array of requests, demands and stuff to do. If we’re lucky, we accomplish a few things on our list. Then, we start all over again the next day.
If you are overwhelmed and stressed out at work and are not experiencing a core sense of fulfillment at the end of your day, do yourself a favour – change your life RADICALLY right now. It’s so simple to do, it’s beautiful (as are all the truly important things in life). Read on to find out how...
Why do it?
There are 3 gorgeous reasons to run your professional and personal life based on achieving your values:
#1 Stop the treadmill of dissatisfaction and the feeling that you are going nowhere fast by choosing what you will focus on.
#2 Experience a deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment at the end of every single day of your life by accomplishing what matters most to you.
#3 Achieve your life ambitions and central purpose by spending most of your time on the "big bang" issues - the ones that count.
Take 5 simple steps
Here's how to create value-driven priorities:
Step 1 List everything you deeply value in life.
This may include things like “opportunity for growth”, “money”, “intellectual stimulation”, “autonomy”, “helping others”, “opportunity to make key decisions”, “quiet time for planning or reflection”, "opportunity to express my creativity", “time to be with family”, etc. These are the things that put a sudden grin on your face and a gleam in your eye.
Step 2 Slim down your list to your ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE top ten items. Prioritize them.
This is your core set of values that you will use to drive every choice you make throughout the day about how you spend your time and energy.
Step 3 Create your daily to-do list based on fulfilling these values.
Make a list of critical activities and tasks you will complete today that will move you forward. These tasks MUST answer this question: "Will accomplishing this task help me to achieve a core value on my list?" For example, let's say that "quiet time to think" is a critical priority for you. At work, this may translate into carving out 30 minutes of quiet thinking time to plan your next team meeting. Will answering your e-mails the minute they come in distract you or help you achieve this priority? Maybe it would be a better decision to book the conference room and immerse yourself in planinng and thinking for a glorious half hour of uninterrupted time than sitting in your office and reacting to other people's demands. If you elect to stay in your office, consider prioritizing your emails by colour code (eg red for e-mails from your boss, etc.).
When creating your to-do list, keep it simple (3 to 5 critical tasks MAX). If you have a lot of large tasks, break them down into manageable and achievable chunks.
Be brutal in your execution. If a particular task does not move you forward towards achieving a key value on your list, ditch it. It is probably either a filler activity (let's just call this filler fluff'n stuff) that makes you run on the spot or someone else’s priority. Respect yourself enough to prioritize your own values. Others will respect you too. Teach others on your team how to do this for themselves.
Step 4 Tweak Your Strategy
At the end of the each day, assess your progress. Tweak your time management strategies based on what worked best for you. Remember: your goal is to prioritize where and how you spend your time by focusing on activities that meet your value system.
Step 5 Take Stock
At the end of a week, take stock of your “emotional barometer” and ask yourself if you are more fulfilled and satisfied than before, and further on the path to achieving your goals.
We cover a variety of quick strategies on how to manage multiple roles, goals, competing demands and priorities in our workshops. If you have participated in one of our time management sessions, go back to your participant workbook and refresh your thoughts.
That’s it for today. Thanks for your time. Talk to you in September!
As always, warmest regards,
Michele Gervais
Professional Speaker, Facilitator & Coach
Visioning In Action
Professional Member of Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS)
Expert Author, EzineArticles.com
Email: mgervais@visioninginaction.com
Tel: 204.899.4046
www.visioninginaction.com
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Focus on what matters most
