The Law of Priorities (17)

Leaders Understand That Activity Is Not Necessarily Accomplishment

To be a successful leader, you must understand the importance of prioritizing your time to leverage your strengths to increase your effectiveness.  A great way to prioritize your time is to apply the Pareto, 80-20 principle, to your life.  It is also important to prioritize your pleasures and make sure that you find time to recharge and refuel your passions by doing the things that you love.

When we are busy, we naturally believe that we are achieving, but activity does not alway mean achievement.

Leadership requires us to set our priorities, and sometimes those priorities take us out of our comfort zone.  But, leadership has nothing to do with comfort and everything to do with progress.

"A leader is the one who climbs the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation, and yells, 'Wrong jungle!'"

- Steven Covey -

Define reality
Every year, Maxwell spends about two weeks in December reevaluating his priorities.  He reviews the previous year's schedule.  He looks at upcoming commitments.  He evaluates his family life, he thinks about his goals, and he looks at the big picture of what he's doing to make sure the way he's living lines up with his values and priorities.

He uses the Pareto Principle - 20% of the activities/people of/on your team will produce an 80% return on your effort.  

The 3 R's

What Is Required?
What must i do that nobody can or should do for me?

What Gives The Greatest Return
Understand what your strengths are and what you can do better than anyone else.  If something I'm doing can be done by 80% as well by someone else, I delegate it.  If someone can be taught how to do it at that level, then develop and train them to handle it.

Leaders should get out of their comfort zone but stay in their strength zone.

What Brings The Greatest Reward?
This relates to personal satisfaction - certain things, like my family, vacation time on the beach, and working out are the fire lighters in my life.  They energize me and keep me passionate.  And passion provides the fuel in a person's life to keep going.

In 1981, Jack Welch became chairman and CEO of General Electric.  Within a few months of taking over the company, he began what he called the hardware revolution. It changed the entire profile and focus of the company.  Welch said,

Because of this focus, GE's stock grew exponentially.  He never mistook activity for achievement.  He knew that the greatest success comes only when you focus your people on what really matters.

John Wooden, arguably the best basketball coach ever, understood the importance of The Law of Priorities.  He never scouted opposing teams.  Instead, he focused on getting his players to reach their full potential.  And he addressed those things through practice and personal interaction with the players.  It was never his goal to win championships or even to beat the other team.  His desire was to get each person to play to his potential and to put the best possible team on the floor.

Applying The Law Of Priorities
1 - You must be prepared to really shake up your life and get out of your comfort zone in order to live and work according to you priorities?  Is there something in your life that is working so poorly that you intuitively know it will require a major revision in how you do things?  What is that something?  Describe how it is not working.  Describe why it is not working.  Can you think outside of the box (or create a new box) to solve the issue and realign your priorities?  Ignoring a major alignment problem in your priorities is like lining up a gold shot incorrectly.  The father you hit the ball, the more off course it will be; the long you live out of alignment, the greater the chance will you miss achieving your vision.

2 - Take time to write out your answers to the three R questions
-  What is required of me?
-  What gives the greatest return?
-  What bring the greats reward?