You’ve asked your team to list their key priorities.
Someone’s written up Increase Sales and Improve Customer Service 🥱.
So, it’s important to be selling more stuff without hacking people off.
No sh*t Sherlock.
It struck me recently, as I was halfway through the new Wham documentary (always a George Michael fan, never really saw the point of Andrew Ridgely) why it’s so tricky to make this kind of exercise particularly useful.
First, let’s start with Andrew Ridgely.
He started out as the powerhouse of Wham. He co-wrote songs, created their look and was the confident go-getter. But after George Michael found his mojo, Andrew became just the pretty sidekick.
In the documentary, Andrew said he was touring the world, spending cash and being famous – what’s not to like?
I realised I would NOT feel the same about that situation. Nothing could compensate for the misery of not contributing creatively and being recognised as making an impact.
That’s when it hit me.
I value making an impact even over financial freedom.
Both are important but instead of just identifying them I’d prioritised them.
Now I have crucial information that can guide my decision making.
For example, I won’t sign up to deliver someone else’s material even if they were paying me over the odds. Not being in control would reduce my ability to have impact and I might turn into Andrew Ridgely (without the world-wide fame and big hair).
So, next time you come up with a list of things that all seem important to your team, force yourselves to pair them up and create ‘even over’ statements.
This will probably create much debate – but I bet you’ll find that significantly more useful than just a dreary list of team priorities.
And if you want a referee facilitator to help you make sense of the session, just press reply and we can chat about how that might work.