Setting goals as the way to create priorities is what
leaders do to maintain direction and focus. Unfortunately,
many managers take a tremendous amount of potential
leverage out of their organizations by not prioritizing.
Many do it by using the Brute Force style of management.
How to define Brute Force management? It's the "just keep
working harder, working longer, and working smarter and
everything will be OK."
It's the "just do what I tell you to do when I tell you to
do it."
I had a Brute Force boss whose standard answer to "What's
the most important thing?" was "Everything's the most
important thing." We were in a crisis mode and there was a
lot to get done, but what that "Everything is important"
direction led to was a lot of counterproductive behavior
-.do what you're told to do, and then ask "What's next?"
After a year of that no leverage management style he was
fired - but not until some very good people had left the
organization.
Managers that take the "everything is Number 1" approach
are often rewarded for being tough, no nonsense, aggressive
problem solvers. The fact that they created many of the
problems they then solved seems to go unnoticed. Instead of
leadership, they use the brute force approach to getting
things done. That often works in a crisis situation, but
when everything becomes a crisis, those managers lose their
effectiveness and their people become cynical about how
they are treated. Brute force managers rarely have goals
they share with people, and even more rarely do they have
their people participate in any meaningful way in setting
goals and priorities. To many of them, sharing information
and open communication are threats to their control. Many
of them are quite happy with a compliance level workforce -
the "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it" people. There
is no leverage in the Brute Force management style.
How do effective leaders create priorities that maximize
their own effectiveness and the effectiveness of their
organization?
They start with a clear understanding of what the three to
five most important things are, both personally and
professionally. This is tough - there are always many more
issues vying for attention than there are resources
available to address them. The leader makes the tough
decisions - the Brute Force manager doesn't.
Then the leader enlists people in the areas of importance
to help arrive at ways to succeed in meeting the most
important requirements.
Then the leader creates and communicates and negotiates
goals that support the most important three to five issues,
or challenges, or opportunities.
The goals are used to create supporting goals, expectations
and understandings of importance in the universe of people
that can contribute to meeting the goal.
Then leaders act - and expect action from their people.
Leaders protect their own time, and the time of their
people, so that maximum focus can be kept on the critical
few, and not frittered away on the unimportant many.
And then leaders evaluate, change if change is necessary,
and continue to use the process as the basis for action
throughout their organization.
And they insist that this process be kept as simple as
possible - minimum bureaucracy here. Don't wait for an
enterprise wide software system to capture all the data and
sign ups and goal statements. More good goal setting
systems have drowned of their own administrative weight
than for any other reason. Leaders fight that. Leaders know
the critical intersection in goal setting and prioritizing
is at the person to person level - not at the form
completion and submission point.
And the resulting action they get is so different from the
"Tell me what to do and I'll do it" people. Lots of
leverage in a shared goal environment - on both a personal
and work level.
Leaders know most people want to help, want to contribute,
want to be involved in a worthy enterprise, want to be
recognized for their contribution. Leaders also know most
people work best and most effectively where they have
structure and an understanding of what needs to be done.
Once they have that, great things start to happen! The
people doing the work no longer have to say "Just tell me
what to do and I'll do it" - they know the priorities and
what is most important. They can use the freedom that
knowledge provides to keep their eyes on the few big balls
- and not be distracted by all the little balls that will
always bounce around and take up all the time people will
let them take up.
Leaders also know there are times when brute force may be
the only appropriate tactic - a public safety health
product recall, a natural disaster, a systems failure, a
fire - all call for everybody pitching in to get things
done - whatever that means. But leaders know the brute
force tactic is the exception to the rule, and is only used
when absolutely necessary. And their people know it - and
rather than take it as just another in a long line of fire
drills, they pitch in and know their efforts will be part
of a worthy enterprise's efforts to succeed. The result is
maximum leverage when needed.
If you work or live in an "Everything is important"
situation, be careful of burning out. If you can take what
leaders do and apply it to your work and your personal
situation two things will happen - you'll have more time
for the really important things, and your personal and
professional success will increase - I guarantee it.
And on those brute force days, or weeks, keep the leader's
model of goals to priorities firmly in your sights - and
get back to it as soon as possible. Start today.
----------------------------------------------------
Andy Cox founded Cox Consulting Group in 1995 after
extensive experience in leadership positions in Fortune 500
corporations. His focus is on helping clients select,
develop, retain and enhance the performance of leaders and
emerging leaders Click on http://www.coxconsultgroup.com
for more information on the selection of the right people
for the right jobs.
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