![]() Here are some of the best practices for making it happen. It takes the right mindset, goal orientation, use of the right tools, and vigilance to prioritize everything continually. Constant prioritization of problems, activities, investments, and hires, is critical to making sure the actions we take will create the most value. We only have so much time in a day, so much energy, so many resources, and so much money in the bank. I often find myself telling CEOs and leaders, “Imagine how much you would grow, if every day, every person, prioritized everything they worked on?” The essence of problem solving is simply prioritizing the largest problems and opportunities, and prioritizing the most effective and efficient solutions to those problems and opportunities. And, from that day on, I embraced prioritization as one of my core principles that I try to apply to everything. What Jonathan said that evening had a profound impact on me. He replied, “Joe, everything you do should be prioritized, whether it is figuring out what you are going to do today, analyzing data, or communicating recommendations. My manager, Jonathan, looked at a slide for a few minutes, looked at me, paused, and then said, “How are these bullet points and this chart prioritized?” It was a pretty dull slide, with some bullet points on one side of the slide, and a chart on the other, it was 8 pm, and I just wanted to feed my rumbling stomach. When I was a strategy analyst at Mercer Management Consulting, fresh out of Stanford, my manager and I were debating a PowerPoint slide for the executive team of a multi-billion manufacturer. And, if there is one thing that all strategic leaders should focus on day in and day out, across everything they do, it is prioritizing. All of the strategic concepts and tools we go over are to help strategic leaders prioritize the actions necessary to achieve a goal. It sounds strange, but prioritization is the main role of a strategic leader. – People prioritizing what they do every single day – Prioritizing actions, people’s time and resources to achieve the goals – Prioritizing a company’s resources, capital, and investments – Prioritizing what is important to focus on – Prioritizing the innovation and ways to serve customers better – Prioritizing the needs of customers to address – Prioritizing what customers, geographies, and markets to go after Strategic leadership is simply a massive ongoing exercise in prioritization. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 18th Century German AuthorĪ strategy is simply arranging actions in order of importance. ![]() “Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
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