Getting Tasks Done: What Leaders Need to Succeed in Business
Written by Phil Geldart, Eagle’s Flight CEO
“Get things done” is the next principle that’s essential to leadership. The ability to prioritize and manage workloads is a critical skill for all, but it is especially paramount when leading others. Focus on these six steps:
1. Desired Outcome
When you create a mental picture of the finished outcome, try to make that picture as complete as possible. The more accurately you can describe how it will look when it’s done, the more accurately you can plan it out.
Sometimes we think we know what our desired outcome will look like, but we really have only a fuzzy picture in mind, a sort of “general direction.” Often a good way to make sure that the mental picture is clear is to describe it to someone else. Let other people ask questions where they’re unclear about what you mean, and in the process of answering them, you will get greater clarity yourself.
Organizations working toward achievement of an outcome need a clear statement of that outcome. This clarity is best ensured when it is fully detailed in writing, storyboards, etc., as then there can be no uncertainty about what is meant, and in its crafting all possible interpretations are discussed and clarified. Whether you are working in a team environment or on an individual project or assignment, you need to develop a clear picture of what is to be accomplished.
2. Available Resources
Before beginning a task or project, it’s crucial to know what you have available to work with. It can be frustrating to get started on a project, then discover that you don’t have enough to finish it. Equally frustrating is finishing the project and realizing you didn’t need all the resources you had accumulated.
Usually the most crucial resource, and the one hardest to gauge, is time. The other ones tend to be easier to plot out and predict. Somehow, most things tend to take much longer than we anticipate. In order to adjust for this, make sure you allow a lot of extra time so that you don’t run out of time or find yourself rushing at the end. Knowing what resources you have, and what you will need, before you begin is a great way to ensure you complete each task as and when intended.
This identification and confirmation of available resources allows you to move ahead with the confidence that you’ll have what’s required to deliver on your promised outcome. Know what you have to work with and set your expectations, and therefore your plan, accordingly.
3. To-Do List
To make the most of your time and resources, a to-do list lets you focus your attention on the key things that you want to accomplish. Without it, we tend to drift from task to task, not always sure either what is the right thing at the moment or how much time to give it. When you’re working from to-do lists, you have a target for what you want to complete by the end of each day, which then lets you better decide how much time to give to each task. It also allows you to know what it is you will be doing today, and what it is you won’t be doing.
To-do lists should really be a tool to help you, not a slave driver to force you into action. They can be all-inclusive, as indicated above, or they can be short and abbreviated, made up of only the major tasks to be accomplished throughout the day. In this case, you know you’ll intersperse those major tasks with other things that must be done, so they don’t need to be on the list.
Working off the to-do list ensures that your obligations can be reviewed frequently to ensure proper priorities are assigned, foreseen resources (including time) are allocated, and important items will not be neglected. Use to-do lists to keep organized, stay focused, and be efficient.
4. Prioritize
Very often, the thing that is really most important, and which absolutely must get done today, is not necessarily the most interesting and engaging thing. Perhaps the important task takes longer to do, or we’ve been procrastinating, or it’s something which we’d really rather not do, despite its importance. In this case, it’s absolutely crucial that we do it first. If we dream up some excuse for not doing it first, then chances are that by the end of the day it won’t be done, but we will have created a lot of great reasons why it wasn’t!
The biggest challenge is that either the thing you’re waiting to do can’t be done right now or it’s quite large, and you have to get a few smaller things done first. If either of these is the case, then you clearly can’t do it first, but you should set a time when you will start it. When that time comes, get started, even if it means stopping something else that you are in the middle of in order to start it, but if that’s the situation, you’ll have to do so and come back and finish the other task afterwards.
This way, you’re sure to always end the day with the most important things done. If you adopt this approach, the things that need to be done each day grow less and less important (because you’re getting the most important things knocked off one by one), so in due time you’ll have more flexibility as to how you spend your time.
The priorities of the organization should be the priorities with which we operate. In order to ensure this happens, we need to rank items on our to-do list in that order of priorities. These priorities are established in conjunction with your leader and previously agreed objectives. In this way, your time and energy is aligned with the expectations of the organization and its leadership. Know what’s most important, and make it your priority to do that first.
5. Contingencies
It’s unrealistic to assume that all our plans are going to flow smoothly without hiccups or the unforeseen happening. Yet, somehow, we never seem to allow enough time to deal with these unforeseen events, nor do we actually plan for them. That’s probably because we’re optimistic and are always hoping for the best. This is a good thing, but one that can sometimes cause frustration when things don’t go as hoped.
A good way to deal with this is to look at your to-do list and pick out the two or three major things where you anticipate something could go wrong or take longer than you planned. Once you’ve identified these, create some contingency plans, asking yourself how you would deal with any likely hiccups. You might decide to set aside some extra time in the event that you run into a problem, or you may be able to identify a few specific fallback actions if you’ve been there before and know what is likely to occur.
Each day, set aside a little emergency time with nothing scheduled. Then, if you run into a snag, you can use some of that emergency time to deal with it without throwing your whole day’s schedule off track. If you’re not sure how much to set aside, simply decide on something that looks reasonable, and refine it each day until you become more accurate at deciding how much emergency time you require. Be prepared with answers for any “what if” issues that may surface, so the task doesn’t have to be abandoned.
6. Time to Plan
Sometimes, when we set aside time to plan, we find ourselves wondering whether it would be better to be actually “doing” rather than “planning.” There’s rarely a better use of our time than the time that we spend planning. The only exception to this is when we use “I need to plan” as an excuse for not actually getting down to work!
The power of planning is so strong because it allows us to think through what we’re going to do, what needs to be done, how we’re going to do it, and what might go wrong. Planning is a bit like doing things mentally before we do them in practice. As a result, we’re better able to make changes or adjustments, because we’re only changing what we’re thinking about; we’re not actually spending time driving back from somewhere, or rushing to finish something, or frantically calling for help at the last minute. If, during the planning stages, we do it all in our mind first, we’re better able to lay out a plan that is realistic and practical.
Sometimes it’s hard to discipline ourselves to actually sit and do the planning that’s required, but it quickly pays the time back as the day unfolds and your schedule is now more realistic; the most important things have been identified up-front, and some thinking about contingencies has already been done. The more we value the time to plan, the more effectively we’ll be able to accomplish all that we want to do. Once you’ve put all that time into planning, make sure you then stick to your plan! Plan first, and then rush off to action.
These six steps can help leaders better prioritize their time and truly “get things done.” Stay tuned for next week’s post on making suggestions to continue learning about the 8 principles of leadership you need to succeed in business.
