From: The Maxwell Daily Reader, John C. Maxwell

Date: January 11

Title: The Law of Priorities

From: 21 Irrefutable Laws of a Leader

Gist:

John Maxwell asserts activity doesn’t necessarily correlate to achievement. For Maxwell, a competent leader looks to effectively manage work by prioritizing and steering efforts best suited to achieve goals.

The way an effect leader guides a team to accomplish its mission is to “see how everything relates to the overall vision”, and make decisions based upon changing demands. Prioritization for a leader should answer three basic questions.

1. What is required?
   1. What tasks and actionable will lead to an outcome?
2. What gives the greatest return?
   1. Which path of movement, the placement of people, and allocation of resources will lead to an outcome of highest gain? Included in this, are the actions of leadership. The quote below references this part, if a task a leader can perform, can be performed by another at 80% effectiveness of the leader then it should be delegated to that person.
3. What brings the greatest reward?
   1. This is both personal and organizational. Which direction creates a sense of mission, and accomplishment for individuals and the team.

Favorite Quote:

“Is there something you’re doing that can be done 80 percent as well by someone else? If so, delegate it.”

Action:
Today give your time only to things that pass the requirement, return, reward test.

Ramble on:

The act of delegation tends to be the one hardest for most people to handle. I know personally, I struggle with this, but after some reflection, I struggle with this issue for two reasons. First, I am unable to give up control and second I am concerned the final work product won’t fit my needs.

The first issue is directly related to trust. I know I need to increase the number of people I work with on a regular basis who I can trust implicitly. I believe I have found a handful of future collaborators, one person in particular. Working with this new intellectual soulmate has given me renewed drive and passion. I need to surround myself around more people like this one.

The second issue, is one related more to my inability to communicate my needs. So much of what I do is in my own head, and even when it comes out it requires more than one revision to get it done. I recently started working with a Virtual Assistant, and I’ve been pissed because she hasn’t contacted me more. She’s done a bit of just waiting. It could partially be the person sucks, but I also haven’t communicated to her in a concise clear way, “hey I need you to hound me for shit” because my mind never stops.

I’m going to try today, to write exactly what my needs are from others I work with, and form my Virtual Assistant. I will try to communicate my needs better, and see how it works.