Most owners, executives, and managers I work with are incredibly hard working. They’re talented and smart people who are constantly coming up with new ideas and new ways to grow their sales and profits.
Many of them also share another common trait. They’re so busy running their companies or store that they struggle to follow through on those new ideas.
Some of them might say they don’t have enough time. Long time readers know I believe that prioritizing is the real issue, not a lack of time. We can’t control time. We all have to work within the same twenty-four hours in a day, but we can prioritize our actions.
Some might label themselves as procrastinators. Maybe they are, but that’s also just a tidy label to explain not prioritizing.
Others will say they don’t delegate enough. Okay, but that’s really just another form of prioritizing. Or not prioritizing, as the case may be. If that’s your case, then consider my delegating program here.
As a leader, it’s your role to manage today’s business while creating tomorrow’s opportunities. (Read that last line again. I’ll wait.)
You have to work in today and tomorrow. Today and next month. Today and next quarter. Today and next year.
If you don’t, your business stays stagnant, or even starts moving backwards. You end up being passed by competitors, clobbered by technology, and finally slide into that slow death spiral that does in businesses every day.
What’s the solution? Priorities. Action.
It’s moving beyond a daily or weekly to-do list, and creating two priorities for the week. You might have many things you need to do this week, but you have just two priorities.
The first priority is the one action you have to take this week to make your business better now. It could be making a floor move. Getting new employees onboard. Making sure you’re ready for the upcoming Martin Luther King weekend. Coach and roleplay with the staff. Whatever it is, it is the one thing you have to do this week to create success now.
The second priority is the one thing you have to do this week to make your business better in the future. You probably have a lot of these listed somewhere. Update your website. Hire a coach or consultant. (Figured I’d slip that in!) Find a new line. Create a new selling or marketing strategy. Plan your spring events. Whatever it is, it’s the one thing you have to do, or at least begin, this week to create future success.
Write these priorities down. Put them above all of your other to-dos. Keep them in front of you all week. Set aside time every day, or a block of time during the week, to work on these two priorities. Commit to a friend, colleague, or manager exactly how much time you’ll invest each day on your two priorities and action, and then follow-up at the end of the day on what you did.
When you start to think you don’t have time to get to the priorities, stop what you’re doing and go do them. Delegate other tasks. Let something else go. Whatever it takes, your goal is to invest your time in these two essential areas whenever you can. If you get them both done, then create two more.
You’ll be amazed at what you can do when it becomes a priority. Drive these two weekly priorities, and you’ll create both short and long-term success.
