Your Priority is Not Someone Else's Priority

I am a get it done kind of person and when I ran my business before I had employees this was easy to do. When you have staff on the other hand, and when you have bosses even more so, this can be more of a challenge. There may be times when what is important to you and your role is not as important to other members of your team. So what does this mean for a small business owner?

It could mean that when you need an immediate shipment of product for a weekend sale event, your supplier may not be willing or able to make it a priority of theirs. It may mean that paying your bills is a priority for you, but your clients paying you on time may not be their priority. It may also mean that when you ask a staff member to help you with something it may not be a priority for them. In a team environment matching priorities is difficult but important, so how can you accomplish this?

1. First you need to ensure that you don't fall in the trap of 'my poor planning is your emergency'. If the only time you're asking your team for something is at the last minute then you can't expect them to be continually dropping their own tasks for yours. Make sure you giving suitable notice when you can.


2. Set timelines, deadlines or assign a priority to it when you ask the other person. Let them know where this fits on your priority list.


3. Come up with a priority system for your workplace - a 'how to get on someones priority list' system.


4. Have your corporate / business priorities clearly posted and distributed to all team members so they know what the long-term, short-term and day-to-day operational priorities are so that all team members are in agreement.

For a team to be effective at priortizing, each team member individually must have the ability to manage their time, prioritize their own tasks and strong communication skills. If you have a team and environment that can do this you should be well on your way to getting everything on your priority list done!