🟢 It’s All About Priorities

One of the most accomplished management gurus of recent times, Peter Drucker, used to say “First things first. Last things never.” This brings us to the point: don’t prioritize. Instead, simply decide what’s most important and then do it. If you constantly apply this principle in your life, you’ll never have time to do anything of low priority anyway. 

The amazing truth is that you always can spot, with any person or business (or even country), what’s their top priority and what is not.

I like this observation in any kind of corporate or country culture. I’m writing this memo while on the train from Switzerland to Venice, and for sure, it is clear that many things in Italy are not as clean and well maintained as they are in Switzerland. Instead, people take, on average, more time for personal conversations and other things. This is not about stereotypes, but about different priorities – without forcing any judgment. 

Here comes the point for you as a leader: if you want to become more successful and achieve more, there is one simple recipe: change your prioritization habits and those of your team.

Here are three simple, yet powerful, steps: 

1. Decide for yourself what your “first things” are, according to Peter Drucker.A key question to ask is simply this: if you could do only one thing for one full week, what would this be in order to make you achieve your goals? I find it remarkable how many people are not clear about this “one thing” for their business.
2. Answer the question why this task is the most important one. This step is ignored most often, with the consequence that we easily find reasons to deviate from our decision of step 1. We can only focus on high priority things if we know why they are important to us.
3. Decide what you’ll stop doing first. As I stated above, by focusing on your most important tasks, you will not have time for unimportant tasks anyway (incl. meetings or checking emails). However, it helps to decide consciously what you will reduce or stop doing.

If you want to systematically improve your prioritization and other habits, contact me. Maybe one of my coaching programs is suitable for you.