Burned out and struggling to make progress? Strategic prioritization may be the anwer.

Mary was a senior finance executive at a well-known retailer. She was frantically busy every day, and so were the people who work for her. Many were burned out and retention was becoming an issue. Even with all of this effort, Mary felt like her group wasn’t getting enough traction. So, she pushed even harder. She and her people became even more miserable, but progress still seemed to be lacking.

Mary’s issues are common. I’ve run across many leaders who are working themselves and their organizations to death, but aren’t achieving the progress they envision. The root cause is usually a lack of prioritization.

Being a strategic leader requires prioritization. Willie Pietersen, in his book, Reinventing Strategy, defines strategy as deciding how an organization will use its resources to “win”. To be strategic, an organization needs to determine what winning means. Defining concepts such as purpose, mission, and vision are a good start. Identifying metrics that will indicate success or failure are also important.

An organization must also determine how it will win. What are the key investments, initiatives, or projects that could be implemented to achieve success? Which will have the biggest impact for the resources (e.g. time, talent, budget, etc.) that are available or can be secured? Resources should be allocated to the strategic priorities that will have the biggest impact.

Prioritizing in this way and re-visiting the plan periodically will allow leaders to make greater progress on the things that really matter while keeping their teams motivated and engaged.