We're continuing our examination of the profile of a 'complete' manager - one who daily achieves Predictable Success® for herself, her team, and the organization she works for.
In the previous two articles in the series, we first took a bird's eye view of what a Complete Manager is, then began our detailed review of the 14 characteristics, beginning with time management.
In this third article, we're looking at the second of the 14 characteristics of 'The Complete Manager' - Priority Management. (If you want to follow along the connections between the 14 characteristics, you can download a copy of the Complete Manager Brain Map - a pdf version of the graphic at top right). You can track the series using this progress bar:
We saw last time that a manager can only build personal Predictable Success® if she has a foundation of (at least) reasonable time management skills - otherwise eventually, the day to day mundane tasks and the complexities of multiple commitments will clog up the works and bring productivity to a grinding halt.
However, time management skills on their own - however good, will not in itself make anyone a Complete Predictable Success® Manager.
Why not? Simply this: There are a lot of managers out there who have great time management skills - and I mean great - managers who are doing all the right time management things: planning, listing, categorizing, delegating, recording, following up and holding their people accountable...but all focussed on the wrong priorities.
Members Only:
Click on the image at left to download a 3-page worksheet from the members-only resource area.
The handout includes five key questions to assess how you (or your managers) are managing their priorities.
It's sad but true - I see it every day - many managers are like a Rolls-Royce car: beautifully engineered, purring along gracefully, a delight to drive, poetry in motion...
...but going in the wrong direction.
Alignment, Alignment, Alignment
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The key to combining your time management skills with a focus on the right priorities is to make alignment a part of the pulse of your everyday activities: Alignment with your organizational, divisional, departmental, group, team, manager and peer goals and objectives.
Now, this might sound like hard work - and this might sound like a sentence that's about to assure you that it's not, really. But the truth is, it is hard work as a manager to stay aligned with key priorities.
It's all too easy to get distracted by whoever shouts loudest in the morning, whatever was in the last email, what a customer 'must have' by today, or any one of a thousand other lesser issues that crowd in all day, everyday.
But the reality is, Predictable Success® managers do it - however hard it is:
They stay focussed on their key priorities.
Do you (or your managers) clearly understand the priorities of the overall organization, division, department, group or team, in so far as they impinge upon their managerial activities?
Do you (or your managers) regularly and consistently identify their own priorities and align them with those of the organization, division, department, group or team?
Do you (or your managers) then ruthlessly focus on the most important of those priorities, not permitting themselves to be distracted by lesser priorities or side issues?
...only by answering 'Yes' to these questions can a manager feel confident that they have the foundation to be a Complete Manager'.
Time and Priority Management Are Inextricably Linked
As you no doubt can see, these first two characteristics (time management and priority management) are joined at the hip.
There's no point in being the best time manager in the world, if you're using it to do the wrong things. Similarly, you can be as clear in your objectives as you want to be, but without the infrastructure underneath to support your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual activities, you simply won't achieve what you set out to do.
Think of it this way:
Time Management Skills = Doing things right.
Priority Management = Doing the right things.
Next: Crisis Management
In the next article, we'll look at the third skill in the Complete Manager's 'Productivity' category - Crisis Management: How do you separate the urgent from the important, and somehow do both?
Pre-Register Today!
Do You Want to Be a Complete Manager?
Do You Want Your Team to Be Complete Managers?
Then pre-register for our upcoming Complete Manager Program - a distance learning program based on all 14 'Complete Manager' characteristics, launching later this year.
There's no obligation whatsoever in pre-registering, and the Program is open to members and non-members alike (although members will receive a discount on the Program registration fee (which we haven't set yet). Just complete this simple form and hit 'Submit':
Pre-Registration Inquiry: The Predictable Success® Complete Manager Program
Yes - please send me more information on The Predictable Success® Complete Manager Program. I understand I am under no obligation by requesting this information, and that you will not add my details to any other list, or contact me about any other product or service, unless I request it.
