The surest way I know to destroy a team is to obfuscate priorities. Try this exercise:
Take a blank piece of paper and create three columns. Label the columns with these three headers:
- What matters most
- What doesn't matter (at least for right now)
- What some people may think really matters but actually doesn't
If you (or your colleagues) can't complete this exercise in 10 minutes or less, you might have a problem.
If you can't clearly articulate both what matters and what doesn't, your team, company, or organization will have one of three mindsets:
- Everything matters
- Nothing matters
- I know what matters to me, so that's what matters
None of these three mindsets leads to a team that achieves predictable, measurable results, let alone good ones.
If you don't know your priorities, start figuring it out today. And believe me, if you're in this boat I'm in it with you. Setting priorities takes a long time to get easy.
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