Work from a clear sense of priority

by Nicole Cox January 2020

When your priorities are clear, then your decisions are clear. I wrote clear, not easy. January is often the time of year people set new goals, set a vision for their company, lay out the OKRs (objectives and key results) for their departments and the like. When you, your staff, your family are clear on the overall vision, then that leads to clearer priorities and decisions are easier.

Questions to ask yourself:

·     Where do your priorities come from in your life?

·     Do they cohabitate well between your personal and professional life?

·     What are you doing to work from a clear sense of priority?

My priorities start with my values. Last year I listened to the audio book Dare to Lead (Brene Brown, 2018). If you haven’t read it or listened to it, I highly recommend it. Brene provides many exercises, but one of my favorites is where you take a long list of values and narrow yours down to one. That’s much easier said than done, but after going through that exercise I can reflect back on my life (personal and career) and see that all my value threads point right back to my single core value; wholeheartedness. In everything I do I come from a place of complete sincerity, thrive in creating meaningful work for myself and others and I give myself to everything I do. There’s a downside to that value thread, but that’s a different topic and Brene is an expert teacher. Back to the point of bringing this up. There’s not one value that’s held in higher regard than the others, but when you know what your core value is then that provides greater clarity and lends to your priorities and decision-making abilities.

I’ve had the opportunity to walk the halls of hundreds of organizations. Many companies have a mission statement and a list of values. It’s a rare sight to see a company that actually lives and breathes their mission, vision and values. When you do see it, it’s because the company has intentionally focused on it. My current organization has a focused mission to improve the health and save the lives of as many people as possible. It’s exciting to work in an organization where every department knows the mission and decisions are based around that intention. Again, not all decisions are easy, but having values, and a mission leads to clear priorities. All of that leads to the goal of greater clarity. (See first article of 2020 here)

Leader habits:

·     Know your values

·     Work with a clear sense of priorities

·     Communicate those to others

·     Listen to the values and priorities of those stakeholders in your lives

·     Make adjustments when things don’t align

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