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Every time I get an email or a call from Peter Boit, a former Microsoft co-worker, I’m reminded how important it is to make a good impression. 

P is for Prioritization

In today’s work environment, with tight deadlines and limited time, I’ve found prioritization is more important than ever before. Doing it right makes you more efficient and can establish better work-life balance.

When you look at all the projects on your plate, it can be difficult to determine how to prioritize—everything on the list feels equally important. And when you decide on an order of things, sticking to the plan can be even harder! That’s why it’s important to have a clear understanding of which project(s) will help you accomplish your long-term goals. Prioritizing those items on your list will pay dividends.

The 80/20 Rule, Applied

When I think about prioritizing, I ask myself what are the things that will drive the majority of what needs to be accomplished? It’s the 80/20 rule: 20% of what you spend your time on should accomplish 80% of what you need to do.

The tricky part is finding that 20% to get the work done. I always keep this in mind when organizing my schedule. You should set aside time for prioritizing the work and then accomplishing the work.

Getting focused and being clear about your objectives and the results you want to drive is critical. But it’s only the start. 

How many times have you been in a meeting where ideas are flying around, and people are taking one outcome and jumping right to the next, “Oh! We could do this…and if we do that, then we’d be able to accomplish that!” All the brainstorming of ideas is great! But it’s usually not realistic or sustainable. You can’t do it all at once.

At a certain point you need to scale back and decide what can be accomplished and what your milestones are. To achieve your desired level of impact, you’ll need both focus and discipline to prioritize successfully.

The Collective Strength

From an organizational perspective, prioritization can be more complicated, but it’s even more important. Your entire team needs to be on the same page in order to reach the business outcomes you’re hoping for. That’s where “Collective Prioritization” comes in. 

Collective prioritization focuses on aligning your team with the greater business objectives and ensuring the end results are prioritized by everyone. If people are working independently on what they think the priorities should be, progress can be difficult. With everyone working on their own thing, there’s no force behind the prioritization. 

But when every manager and individual is clear about the priorities—and they’re thinking critically about how the priorities relate to their daily and weekly goals—that’s when the magic happens. That’s the power of prioritization.

As we enter a new year (and a new decade), I encourage you to put a priority on prioritization. It’s been a game-changer for me. It will be for you and your organization too!

Have a great week everyone!

Taking good care of people in your charge is not always easy to do. But it’s imperative for ensuring success as a team. Creating a culture that enables people to do their best is what Microsoft’s three Leadership Principles are all about.

Microsoft’s leadership principles

Creating clarity

If people aren’t clear about what the goal is, they’ll never reach it. Likewise, if people aren’t clear about what their role is in reaching the goal, they feel confined. Satya once called-out that Microsoft is great at creating clarity on Horizon 2—where we’re headed and what the technology landscape will look like five years from now. But we can improve our illustration of Horizon 1—the path we lay out to get to the North Star.

A great leader paints a clear picture of where they want their organization to go and every person’s role to get there. They lay out the roadmap and milestones—especially in the face of ambiguity—so the whole team is clear on what success looks like. A great leader then continues to communicate and clarify this vision to keep everyone on the right path.

Generating energy

My take on this leadership principle is all about matching people to their passion. I’ve worked on teams where I see people who really excel at something, but not the specific job they’re doing. On my teams, when I spot this, I try to correct it.

Some leaders prefer to build an organizational structure and then put people in the roles. I think that’s kind of backwards. You could be looking forever to find the “perfect” person for a specific role! My approach is to look at the people on your team—and the experience and perspective they bring—then build jobs around their strengths. Capitalizing on the unique abilities of your team members will position them for greater success. This approach inspires creativity, optimism, and growth, and generates energy and enthusiasm around your organization’s goals and mission.

Delivering success

This is critical: results matter. And the results should be visible. How are you providing value to your team, your manager, and the business? People need to be aligned and know the success you’re aiming to deliver.

The unfortunate truth is, we live and work in a what-have-you-done-for-me-today kind of world. Everything you’ve done has helped you get to this point, but what matters most is delivering success today. Ongoing success builds your credibility, your brand, and your network.

As a leader, you deliver success in many ways. You do it by helping others succeed—ensuring your team members are able to work productively toward a goal. You do it by innovating constantly and coming up with new and better ideas. And you do it by relentlessly pursuing solutions to seemingly insurmountable obstacles.