Leadership Principle #18 – Opportunity and Urgency

If you were to ask a group of leaders what the main job of a CEO is, you would likely get many different answers.  If you were to ask me, I’ll tell you that resource allocation is the primary job of a CEO.  And what is the most important resource you must allocate?  Time.

When you are allocating your companies resources, you have to prioritize in order to capitalize on opportunities that show up.  Surprisingly, most people don’t prioritize adequately, and don’t have the right sense of urgency when it comes to taking advantage of opportunities.  This is the difference between landing the $10M deal or watching the business go to a competitor – it’s that important.

Once you’ve done your homework and determined the most critical, time-sensitive opportunities to pursue, your next most important job is to get your team on board so everyone feels the same sense of urgency around this opportunity.  Urgency will help generate significant momentum in the organization, and the amount of urgency needed should match the significance of the opportunity.

But it’s important to ensure you have alignment within your team on both the opportunity and urgency, as well as clarity on timelines.  Missing these steps can result in a missed opportunity, as these situations don’t hang around forever.  Urgent timelines can be next day for some people, and 2 weeks from now for others, so have those conversations up front and get alignment.  After all, working hard is not enough if it’s not working in the right direction. 

The good news is once you have everyone aligned behind the opportunity, and have buy-in from your team, investors, board or others, you can generate a tremendous amount of energy to accomplish your goals.  You can see it and feel it when there is good energy in an organization moving towards a common purpose.  That alignment on opportunity and urgency is potent, and believe me, you’ll want more of that in your organization.

Want to learn how effectively prioritize opportunities for your organization?  Contact me today to learn about working with a CEO coach.