This past fall, I heard something for the first time. NOvember.
The idea is that we decide what we’re going to say “no” to each day during the month of November. I love this idea and think it’s something that should continue all year long.
For years now, I’ve been responsible for organizational builds and transformations. Taking what is and turning into what it could be, or building something new from scratch. As part of those efforts, I’ve lived by a simple expression.
I can do one thing well, two things marginally, or four things for crap.
I’ve had this conversation with numerous managers throughout the years. Tell me the most important thing you want done, and I’ll make that happen. Let me know what’s 2, 3 and 4 on your list, and I’ll keep those in mind. But I’m not going to work on them. Not if you want #1 done well and fast.
Split focus results in poor outcomes.
New job, same challenge
Not long ago, I started a new job. It was MAYBE a few weeks in, and I found myself with at least a dozen irons in the fire. As I looked around, that seemed pretty common among my peers and my manager as well.
What was amazing to me about this conundrum is that we were using agile to manage our team backlogs. We were all aggressive about managing to a clear backlog. For everyone else but us.
We would go through annual and quarterly prioritization activities. Then every few weeks, we’d prioritize our backlogs for the team and only commit to the work we knew we could do.
Yet as leaders, we sucked at this royally for ourselves.
Sorry, not sorry for calling this out. After many years of doing this kind of work, I was seeing the same thing yet again. Leaders may be ruthless about prioritizing work for our teams, but we generally suck at prioritizing our own work.
I was on the job 5 minutes and had more things going on than I knew what to do with. What was the most important? Did anyone know? Did I? Newsflash…no.
Raise the flag
Fortunately, the organization I found myself in was very transparent and welcomed feedback. My leadership and I were able to have conversations about what I found myself working on and what was the most important.
With years of experience under my belt, I was generally able to intuit what was #1 in any given moment, versus the overall #1 that should be guiding my time. I was ruthless with my time, and pushed everything that wasn’t a top priority to the back burner.
Ruthless prioritization of my own assignments, not just that of my teams, has been critical to success as a leader. We must pick the top thing and focus intently on getting that one thing to done.
In the lulls that happen as we wait on responses or dependent teams to act, we can frame up the next priority or two. We make small steps as there is time, so that when the top thing is done, the next on our list is ready to go.
Without this approach, we make meaningless progress on many things, instead of meaningful progress on one. We risk being pulled into many directions, allowing the tail to wag the dog. That’s not leadership…it’s followship.
Leaders prioritize for everyone, including themselves
In an agile organization, leaders manage the team’s backlog. They are clear on what is critically important to get to the next minimum viable product. It feels good to make clear decisions about what is first, second, and third. To decide what not to do because our client is not yet ready or something else is more important.
While leaders may be clear on what is most important for our teams, we often struggle with prioritizing our own work. On when to say “no”, or “not yet”.
Saying yes to everything leads to crap work and burnout, for ourselves and our teams. If we remember that we can do one thing well, two things half-assed, and four things for shit, it becomes really clear why we need to prioritize.
There is no end to the work in front of us. There won’t suddenly be a block of free time where we can catch our breath. Instead, we need to embrace saying NO to what it not the most important thing.
As leaders, saying no creates space to breathe and innovate. For balance and demonstrating it to our teams. Ultimately, it allows us to model good leadership for our people, who may be considering a path to leadership themselves.
Are you ruthless with managing your backlog? What techniques do you use to ensure you’re working on the top priority of the organization? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
