In both our personal and professional lives, the start of a new year brings a time to set our faces toward living out our best selves. Where do you want to go, and how will you get there? Same old, same old won’t cut it, will it? Reaching your 2019 goals will require setting and sticking to your business priorities. But what exactly are they?
Setting priorities
To set priorities that will support your business goals for 2019, work backwards.
For instance, no doubt one of your goals is to increase sales by a certain amount. Given your average sales per customer, what combination of new and up-sales will get you to that number? How will you create and deliver content to reach enough of the right people to make that happen? What new initiatives will be necessary to keep up with trends in the rapidly changing marketing landscape? What will it take to make each of those happen?
Now comes the hard part — sticking to those priorities
One of the biggest challenges business leaders face in sticking to their priorities is a lack of bandwidth, says Eric Douglas, author of The Leadership Equation and senior partner of Leading Resources Incorporated. Too often their days are consumed with the urgencies of operations. They go from one fire to the next, trying to keep things rolling.
You know how it is: You have every intention of working on your business, not in it. And before you know it, you’ve spent the day sitting in a meeting (or meetings) that should have been a simple email.
Meanwhile, your priorities quietly hang out in the background and wait for you to refocus on them. Hopefully you will before it’s too late.
Every business leader struggles with this — especially entrepreners.
The solution usually involves delegating or outsourcing to clear the path to focus on strategy. What you offload could be client work, marketing, bookkeeping and accounting, or HR.
If you’re overwhelmed with the urgent, others on your team probably are, too. They will naturally become protective of their own time and energy instead of open to creative thinking and new opportunities.
They need a visionary leader who includes them in planning and vision casting, who listens to their concerns and ideas, and who respects their gifts and affirms their contributions each step of the way.
Your role as that leader is worth more than any amount of money you will save by keeping those operational tasks on your own to-do list.
“One of the biggest challenges business leaders face in sticking to their priorities is a lack of bandwidth. The solution usually involves delegating or outsourcing to clear the path to focus on strategy. What you offload could be client work, marketing, bookkeeping and accounting, or HR.”
3 strategies to make and keep business priorities
Leadership coaches recommend several strategies to support the discipline of priorities. Here are three to chew on:
- Schedule and guard thinking time. Unless there is a reason to call 911, schedule other responsibilities and appointments around it. Others may see you as available during these periods, so you may need to set firm boundaries around time to evaluate, adjust, and plan. And turn off your phone (or put it in another room).
- Remember that even the most well-thought-out business priorities often require flexibility. Too little and they will shatter instead of bend when life changes. Too much, and they will collapse instead of bend and offer no guidance at all. Approach adjustments with the goal in mind.
- Question everything. Specifically, ask “Why?” and “Where will this lead?” daily as a check on whether you are staying on course. There is power in creating a team culture of asking to continually refocus everyone’s priorities on their part of what really matters.
5 questions to ask when refocusing business priorities
Brian Tracy is an internationally known authority on sales training and personal development. He recommends asking yourself five key questions for setting business priorities.
- “Why am I on the payroll?” If you are the business owner, revise this to “Why am I in business?” If you’re unsure of your reason, the question truly is why you are continuing.
- “What are my highest value activities?” Remember the 80-20 rule? Tracy says that probably three things you do account for the most resulting value.
- “What are my three key result areas?” How do you measure forward movement toward your goals? Set some personal KPIs for yourself.
- “What can I, and only I, do that if done well will make a real difference?” If you’re doing something that someone else can do, delegate it to them. Keep yourself free to work from your strengths on things that will go lacking if you don’t do them.
- “What is the most valuable use of my time, right now?” Refocus and steward your time. That’s what it comes down to, moment by moment.
What are your top business priorities for 2019?
What support are you putting in place to help you stick with them and build the business – and life – you want? We’d love to hear your thoughts and help in any way we can. Want to chat? Call us at 720-722-2987 or click the blue button below to request a time for conversation.
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