Leadership Principle #27 – Effectiveness and efficiency: How to beat the urgency of the unimportant
“Did you have a good week?” That question seems simple on the surface. A quick yes or no answer. But the real question is, “How do you know if you had a good or bad week?” This is where you might respond with how busy you were, and therefore how productive you were. This is a trap! I see situations all the time where individuals confuse activity with achievement. Just because you were busy all week and got things done doesn’t mean you were doing the right things to move the needle for your business. Having a good week comes down to efficiency and effectiveness.
Being effective is essentially doing the right thing. The dictionary definition of effective is being “successful in producing a desired or intended result.” However, it is impossible to produce the best result for your business if your time is not spent on the right activities. This is where planning, prioritization and relentless assessment comes into play. In order to keep laser focused on the right things, I coach my clients to begin the week with a clear plan that has been prioritized according to which tasks are mission-critical, for both the long-term and immediate business needs. This is where you work on the business, not just in the business. It takes a different mindset to accomplish this task because you need to zoom out to assess priorities on a higher level. Though it may not always be fun or feel useful in the moment, this process is absolutely essential, especially when your to-do list is overflowing.
Of course, it’s natural for priorities to shift during the week, which is why constant monitoring is necessary. But prioritization is the best way to beat the urgency of the unimportant. Urgent issues will be hitting your desk all day, and it’s critical to keep yourself from getting swept up with the urgent items that may not in fact be the most important item on your list. This can be counter-intuitive, but this realization is so important that I will repeat this part again: In order to do the right things for your business, you can’t just do whatever is urgent. You must constantly and relentlessly assess your actions and business priorities and revise accordingly in order to maximize your effectiveness. That is the only way to truly produce the desired result for your company.
This exercise in prioritization also leads to an increase in efficiency. The definition of efficiency is to “achieve maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.” Your weekly activity assessment that keeps you on track with the right things allows you to be not only effective, but also efficient. In business, wasted effort or expense can have a huge cost to the organization. At the highest level, it is even more important to prevent the wasteful use of a particular resource: your time!
Most days I’m sure your endless to-do list means you can’t get everything done. But you can take comfort in knowing you got the right things done in the most effective and efficient way possible. Furthermore, I encourage my clients to give themselves the freedom to celebrate their wins each week, knowing they made progress on the most important areas for their company, regardless of the remaining items on their list. That freedom is worth the time and effort it takes to do your weekly prioritization, and also pays dividends for your company’s success.
If you’d like more information on how I work with clients to maximize their efficiency and effectiveness, contact me for a conversation on my CEO coaching program.