Leaders Set Goals To Define Priorities

Setting goals as the way to create priorities, whether in business or in personal life, is what leaders do to maintain direction and focus in their organizations and in their personal lives. Unfortunately, many managers take a tremendous amount of potential leverage out of their organizations by not prioritizing.

I had a boss whose standard answer to "What's the most important thing?" was "Everything's the most important thing." What a copout. We were in a crisis mode and there was a lot to get done, but what that "Everything is important" direction led to was a lot of counterproductive behavior - hunker down and keep the boss off your butt by being busy all the time - 24/7 - and ride it out. Do what you're told to do, and then ask "What's next?" After a year of that no leverage management style he was fired - but not until some very good people had left the organization.

Managers that take the "everything is Number 1" approach are often rewarded for being tough, no nonsense, aggressive problem solvers. The fact that many of the problems they solved were created by them seems to go unnoticed. Actually, instead of leadership, they use a brute force approach to getting things done. That often works in a crisis situation, but when everything becomes a crisis, those managers lose their effectiveness and their people become cynical about how they are treated. Brute force managers rarely have goals they share with people, and even more rarely do they have their people participate in any meaningful way in setting goals and priorities. To many of them, sharing information and open communication are threats to their control. Many of them are quite happy with a compliance level workforce - the "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it" people. There is no leverage in the Brute Force management style.

How do effective leaders create priorities that maximize their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of their organization?

They start with a clear understanding of what the three to five most important things are, both personally and professionally. This is tough - there are always many more issues vying for attention than there are resources available to address them. The leader makes the tough decisions - the Brute Force manager doesn't.

Then the leader enlists people in the areas of importance to help arrive at ways to succeed in meeting the most important requirements.

Then the leader creates and communicates and negotiates goals that support the most important three to five issues, or challenges, or opportunities.

The goals are used to create supporting goals, expectations and understandings of importance in the universe of people that can contribute to meeting the goal.

Then leaders act - and expect action from their people.


Leaders protect their own time, and the time of their people, so that maximum focus can be kept on the critical few, and not frittered away on the unimportant many.

And then leaders evaluate, change if change is necessary, and continue to use the process as the basis for action throughout their organization.

And they insist that this process be kept as simple as possible - minimum bureaucracy here. Don't wait for an enterprise wide software system to capture all the data and signups and goal statements. More good goal setting systems have drowned of their own administrative weight than for any other reason. Leaders fight that. Leaders know the critical intersection in goal setting and prioritizing is at the person to person level - not at the form completion and submission point.

And the resulting action they get is so different from the "Tell me what to do and I'll do it" people. Lots of leverage in a shared goal environment - on both a personal and work level.

Leaders know most people want to help, want to contribute, want to be involved in a worthy enterprise, want to be recognized for their contribution. Leaders also know most people work best and most effectively where they have structure and an understanding of what needs to be done. Once they have that, great things start to happen! They no longer have to say "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it" - they know the priorities and what is most important. They can use the freedom that knowledge provides to keep their eyes on the few big balls - and not be distracted by all the little balls that will always bounce around and take up all the time people will let them take up.

Leaders also know there are times when brute force may be the only appropriate tactic - a public safety health product recall, a natural disaster, a systems failure, a fire - all call for everybody pitching in to get things done - whatever that means. But leaders know the brute force tactic is the exception to the rule, and is only used when absolutely necessary. And their people know it - and rather than take it as just another in a long line of fire drills, they pitch in and know their efforts will be part of a worthy enterprise's efforts to succeed. The result is maximum leverage when needed.

If you work or live in an "Everything is important" situation, be careful of burning out. If you can take what leaders do and apply it to your work and your personal situation two things will happen - you'll have more time for the really important things, and your personal and professional success will increase - I guarantee it. And on those brute force days, or weeks, keep the leader's model of goals to priorities firmly in your sights - and get back to it as soon as possible. Start today.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph:602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website:www.coxconsultgroup.com

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved

Personal Importance - Your Success Depends On It

One thing I've noticed about all the successful people I've met - they all are convinced of the importance of what they do and of their own personal importance. I don't mean in an egotistical, arrogant way, but in a way best expressed as quiet confidence. And many of them didn't start that way - they had to develop the habits of thought that allowed them to believe in their own worthiness and ability. It's not easy, but it is critical to personal success.

I've also noticed how many people, by their own actions, communicate their feeling of unimportance. They do it in little ways - deferring to someone else when they had a perfect right to stand their ground; when they apologize or minimize their own contribution; when they don't speak up even though they have a lot to say; when they fail to express their successes.

When we were kids, I remember being told to "not talk unless talked to," that I was to "be seen and not heard," that talking about myself was boastful, that it was "better to keep my mouth shut and appear dumb, than to open it and remove all doubt." I'm sure many of you have your own list of negative messages that were part of your life.

When those message soak in and become beliefs - and they do - it's tough to not feel that others must be better or more able or more worthy.

Think about your own self talk. What does it tell you about yourself - does it help you feel more worthy and able, or does it keep repeating those messages of your earlier years?

You’d be surprised how many people - when they really think about this, say they still hear their own "be seen and not heard" messages.

The story is told of the three stone masons - all working on the same job. When asked what he was doing, the first said he was cutting and laying stone. The second said he was building a school, and the third one said he was helping build a place of learning for children, and he wanted it to be the best built school he could manage. I suspect you know who felt important in contributing to this place of learning, and who was just laying stone. Same skills, same assignment, same project, probably the same work effort, but what a personal difference. The third mason will visit that school, point with pride to the contributions he made, tell his own children about it, and keep it as a personal point of pride and ability for the rest of his years. Don't we all want that kind of feeling about our work, our passions, our families?

To get that feeling one thing is certain - no one else can do it for us. We can be stone mason #1 and work and collect our pay, or we can be stone mason #3, and collect our pay and so much more. But only we can do it for ourselves.

People that have a feeling of self worth and those who are challenged to gain a greater sense of their own worth, look at the inputs and communications they receive in a very different way from people who don't have a good feeling about their worth and ability. Why? Because we all look for the things that confirm what our mind already believes or wants to believe! So the person with a positive self worth will hear an affirmation, the person working on getting a better sense will hear a constructive comment, and the person with a poor self worth will find a criticism or suspicion that they are being manipulated, or a reason to dismiss the compliment as so much BS. Same comment, same situation, three very different effects.

If you want to improve your own sense of self worth, what can you do?

1 - Stop looking back - what happened up to this point got you to where you are. Dwelling on it to find root causes just eats up today - which is all there is.

2 - Become very aware of what you tell yourself .

3 - Suspend judgment and just take what happens or is communicated for what it is - and no more.

4 - Start replacing damaging self talk with positive affirmations. Start by constantly reminding yourself of what you do well.

5 - Work with your strengths - the ones you feel good about - and be convinced you have more than you know - because I guarantee you do.

6 - Understand that you are unique - no one else on this earth is just like you - don't assume others can do what you do well - because they can't.

7 - Avoid the circumstances and events and people that would drag you back into where you no longer want to be.

8 - Identify how you want to make a difference - and go for it.

9 - Associate with successful people - and be amazed to find out they have their own challenges - just like you.

10 - Read biographies of great people - people that have overcome adversity to succeed. You will be amazed how their stories can affect and motivate you.

11 - Help someone else succeed - nothing helps you feel better about yourself than helping another person.

As you implement these steps, you're going to feel a real growing sense of your own importance, and your ability to get things done - in every part of your life. And as you gain a sense of your own worthiness and ability, it becomes more difficult for others to negatively influence you, and as you gain that better feeling about yourself, you will see so many more possibilities than you ever felt existed.

Start today!

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved