To continue my theme on how to become a great high growth leader. This week I will share with you another tip which drives their success – deciding on what is important.
We have constant demands on our attention and energy. We face a barrage of demands that are urgent – that just have to be done by a certain date and time. The challenge is that by the time you’ve addressed all the urgent things, it’s much more difficult to do the complex, difficult, uncertain but important tasks that will really move your forward to delivering your goals. Yet to get to the next level both personally and in your business you need to put in a lot of time and cognitively intense effort. This may include planning, research and networking. Unless you devote several productive hours to these activities each week, it’s not going to happen. Whereas most of us underestimate the time it will take and overestimate our willpower, successful people are realistic about the effort involved. They are clear about their priorities, have a vision of where they are heading and are truly committed to their goals. This means they limit the time they put into the urgent stuff and sometimes do what’s absolutely necessary, so they preserve time for achieving their vision.
Now you know some of the secrets of truly successful people (please look back at my blog posts for the past few weeks), it’s time to take a good, hard look at your life and the habits that hold you back. Find the courage to do an accurate self-diagnosis and ask friends, family or colleagues for feedback. Are you then willing to make a commitment to behaviour change over the long haul to achieve your goals
