The Leadership Grand Illusion

I’m an optimist by nature. I believe the best in people, see the possibilities in any situation regardless of how bad, and love stretch goals. These tangible expressions of optimism have defined and benefited my leadership.

Yet, there are downsides to such optimism. One in particular which has inflicted my leadership (thus the organizations I’ve led) is the belief that I can effectively manage a large number of priorities at one time. Yes, it’s the overzealous conviction that I am capable of doing many important things, all really well, and all at the same time.

But here is the reality, to do our best work we must be single minded, we need to focus and do just a few important things at one time. All the research that’s been done over the past few years tells us this much. Sure there appears to be some outliers who can manage lots of priorities, but they are a micro minority (the definition of outlier) or, more likely, just good with smoke and mirrors. Which means most of us (do I dare say – all of us) can’t juggle many priorities at one time.

It’s the Leadership Grand Illusion – believing, even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, that we’re a part of the micro group of outliers that effectively management a high number of priorities at one time.

So, I had to come to grips with this reality and quit buying into the Grand Illusion. I’ve worked to bring discipline to my personal priorities as well as SpringHill’s. It’s been a painful process for an optimist like me, but it’s been necessary (and significantly more effective).

How have I (and we) done this? There are three simple rules that I’ve applied personally as well as organizationally:

Have no more than Three Priorities (of the day, week, month, year, etc.) at one time

Then be crystal clear about the Top One of the Three.

Finally focus, talk, look at, work and Obsess over Three.

It’s that simple.

What’s not simple is the discipline, control of that optimism, and ignoring the Grand Illusion that is required to tackle only three priorities at a time, to pick the first priority of the three, then obsess about those three.

Now the issue, especially if you’re an optimist with a long list of priorities, is how do you identify the Three and the One of the Three?

Again, it’s simple but difficult at the same time – you need to ask and answer the following two questions

• “If I/we can only work on three priorities, which ones should they be?”
• “Of these three priorities, if I/we could only accomplish one, which one would we choose?”

So that’s it.

Really simple, incredibly effective – Commit to these three rules, then rigorously debate and honestly answer these two questions, and finally obsess over the answers until they’re completed. When you take these three steps you’re on your way to being a focused (and really effective) leader.