As a Vistage Chair, I often hear a speaker more than once – sometimes 3 days in a row. I always learn something from each talk, and this week was no different. Mike Scott was giving his advanced workshop on accountability, and he asked us to write down our top strategic projects. I wrote down what my critical brain said “looks like tomorrow’s tasks to me”.
When Mike called us all back from our thoughts, he said, “Like Nora, one of my strategic projects is to keep my pipeline full. So this morning before we started, I made 3 calls to follow up on prospective work.”
Gulp, that wasn’t even on my list. Yet, as he said it, I absolutely knew that keeping my pipeline full is or should be one of my top 3 strategic activities every week. In fact, it went to the top of the list. Mike suggested that we write the top 3 strategic activities into our phone, or somewhere we can often see it.
That seems so obvious, doesn’t it? Keep our focus on our strategic priorities. And, we don’t do it. We lose our focus on the important, overwhelmed by the urgent.
Further, we don’t plan time to work on the strategic. We get to it when we get to it. Maybe after everyone has left for the day. Or, first thing in the morning because we get in so early. Or, its weekend work, or we stay home to do it cause we can’t focus in the office.
Stop it! Make appointments with yourself to work on your strategic projects. Close the door and do not answer when people knock. Put your cell phone in a drawer set to Airplane Mode. Make it part of your culture so that everyone has focused strategic work time. Keep track of your outcomes. Let’s see if you don’t reach your strategic goals faster and with less stress.
Illustration courtesy of http://www.aapg.org/career/training/online/traditional-courses/