Leadership Prioritisation: The Key to Unlocking Success and Reducing Stress

Change. Emerging trends. Increasing expectations. Today's environment is continuously evolving, so effective leadership is crucial, and at its heart lies a critical skill: prioritisation. The ability to focus on what truly matters can make the difference between thriving and merely surviving, both for the individual leader, their teams, and organisations.

The Importance of Prioritisation

Prioritisation is not just about managing time; it's about managing focus, energy, and resources. It can lead to increased productivity, reduced stress, and improved work-life balance for individual leaders. It ensures team effort aligns with strategic goals, leading to better outcomes and higher morale. For organisations, it drives efficiency, delivery, innovation, and performance.

However, many leaders struggle with prioritisation. According to a study by L.E.K. Consulting, over half (54%) of leaders admit spending too much time on lower-level tactical decisions, preventing them from spending enough time on more important decisions. This can have serious consequences for organisational performance and long-term success.

Prioritisation is a skill that people often dismiss – of course I can prioritise and manage my time. Yet all too often, we experience excessive hours, high stress levels, and not being able to get everything done. Annual staff surveys demonstrate this is the case – so why do we insist that prioritisation is something we do easily, without spending time developing it as a skill?

Prioritisation Frameworks

To address these challenges, there are various prioritisation frameworks. Here are four examples covering a range of prioritisation needs:

1. The Eisenhower Matrix

Named after President Eisenhower, this matrix helps leaders categorise tasks based on urgency and importance.

Tasks are divided into four quadrants:

4 box matrix. Box 1: Urgent and important (focus on these). Box 2: Urgent but not important (do these next). Box 3: Urgent but not important (delegate). Box 4: not urgent and not important (eradicate).

Tip: Use this when you are facing numerous tasks with varying levels of urgency and importance. Use the table, asking yourself the following to fill it in:

• How does this task align with my long-term goals and objectives?

• How urgent is this task? What would happen if I didn’t do it immediately?

Once completed, focus on those you’ve designated as urgent and important.

2. The RICE Method

This method is especially useful for prioritising projects or initiatives:

• Reach - scale

• Impact – or outcome

• Confidence – in success

• Effort – to deliver

By scoring each factor and calculating a final RICE score, leaders can objectively compare different options.

Tip: Use this when there are lots of options and you need to prioritise the best approach. For each option, ask yourself:

• How many people will this impact?

• How will it impact them? How significantly?

• How confident am I that my estimates are accurate and can therefore be delivered?

• How much effort, resources, and time will it take to deliver? Which is the best alternative?

3. The MoSCoW Method

This method is effective for project management and helps focus on the most crucial deliverables, by dividing them into four categories:

• Must have: Critical for success

• Should have: Important; not vital

• Could have: Desirable; not necessary

• Won't have: Agreed to be deprioritised

Tip: Use this when establishing the project’s plan and critical path. Work on these critical questions:

• What are the absolute must-haves, without which the project would fail?

• Which items could be sacrificed if time or resources become constrained?

4. The 1-3-5 Rule

This simple personal prioritisation tool is great for balancing progress across both significant projects and smaller, routine tasks. The method involves identifying what to complete each day and focusing on these. The 1-3-5 specifies the selections you make:

• 1 big task

• 3 medium tasks

• 5 small tasks

Tip: Use this when organising and managing a high daily workload. Spend 10 minutes planning the 1-3-5 tasks. Ask yourself:

• What is the one significant task that will move me closest to my key objective today?

• How will the tasks I have chosen collectively contribute to my goals and objectives?

The Importance of Quadrant II Activities

No discussion of prioritisation would be complete without referencing Stephen Covey's work in his book “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. Over the last few months, I have returned time and again to his Time Management Matrix, particularly the importance of Quadrant II activities as this tends to be a big feature in discussions with my coaching clients.

These are tasks that are important but not urgent, such as planning, relationship building, transformation projects, and personal development, rather than day-to-day firefighting or even irrelevant yet ‘comforting’ tasks. Spending more time on Quadrant II activities is essential for long-term success and effectiveness. As Covey states, "Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important".

Quadrant II activities are crucial because they help prevent urgent crises from arising in the long term and contribute to growth. By focusing on these activities, leaders can reduce stress, increase productivity, and improve overall performance. Critically, whilst these typically take longer to deliver, they reduce the need for the fire-fighting that so often seems to be the cornerstone of a leader’s working life.

Implementing Effective Prioritisation

To implement these frameworks and focus on Quadrant II activities, leaders should:

• Regularly review and align priorities with organisational goals

• Communicate priorities clearly to team members

• Delegate effectively to free up time for important tasks

• Schedule time for Quadrant II activities

• Continuously evaluate and adjust priorities as needed

Conclusion

With the reality of constant demands and distractions, the ability to prioritise is a critical leadership skill that is the key to ensuring that time is spent on what truly matters.

By employing prioritisation frameworks and focusing on important but not urgent activities, leaders can drive better results for themselves, their teams, and their organisations. So, if you don’t already, build into your life the habit of asking yourself what tasks truly need to be focused on, by month, week, and day. Reflect – and act – on what you can let go of, to make more room for what is truly important.