It's the non-priorities that you have to watch

At corporations, large and small, in general, there are less sales going on. So, we should be less busy, right? Wrong. It may be busier than ever.

Since there are less people at corporations, that means we are tackling more responsibilities, more territory and more responsibility. Plus, if we're focusing on attracting new business, we may be overwhelmed with prospects that require attention.

That's why we have to fully comprehend what our non-priorities are. We have plenty of priorities--those things that are vital to our business. But if we don't watch out, we'll spend our time on things that are urgent and of the moment, but are clearly not key to our success.

Imagine a corporation that sells over a billion dollars of product yearly. They have a great brand, excellent product and are strong potential for growth. But they are tempted to dilute that focus on pet projects that clearly don't have the magnitude of a number of other, less glamorous, issues that could be tackled. Yes, their people are busy, yes they have exciting things going on. But if they don't identify the non-priorities, they will be facing a disappointing year and plenty of lost opportunities.

It's not easy for all of us to do it, but with restricted resources and opportunities, the non-priorities have got to be identified and put on the shelf for someone else to tackle or for a different day (and economy).

Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
http://www.labov.com/