A Few Words About Priorities

Lately, I've been confronted with more and more examples of two common problems relating to priorities. First, people who state their priorities as one thing but demonstrate their priorities as something else. For example, if you're the company that talks a good game of prizing the concept of teamwork, but rewards and awards employees as individuals, you've got a problem. James Frick wisely stated, "Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are." Don't say you value something and not give it any value. See to it that your words and actions are congruous.

Second, sometimes it's helpful to keep your priorities to yourself. Never share with your client that the reason you're not addressing his/her issue until tomorrow is that you have matters involving three other clients that are more important today. Your client does not want to hear that. Either develop the organizational capacity to do more than walk and chew gum at the same time, or have the decency to say you'll address your client's issue tomorrow and then stop talking. Sharing your priorities here will not help you, and unless the timing is problematic for your client, (s)he is not likely to ask why.

If you can think about priorities in this manner internally with regard to your employees and externally when it comes to your clients and other stakeholders, you'll accomplish a great deal in terms of strengthening your brand and building organizational trust. These should be your priorities!

*barrydean.wordpress.com

What's Your Priority?

Imagine for a moment you're starting your own business from scratch and one of your goals is client service excellence. Then look at your current company and consider whether you're really set up to accomplish this goal. Who or what is the real priority and what would you change?

Most businesses, even professional service firms, are built with internal operations or financial goals as the centerpiece. Within that structure, leaders who espouse client service excellence as a priority then do the best they can to service clients within the parameters of that model. Sounds reasonable so far, but think about the number of times a client wants or needs something you're not set up to provide. Sometimes you can accommodate them, but often times you can't because your business/organizational model doesn't allow for it. When operations and financial considerations drive your organization, you are limited by definition as to how well you can serve your client.

So what if you built or restructured your organization with client service excellence as the centerpiece? What if your financial and operations models were actually based on meeting your clients' needs rather than asking clients to serve yours. How different would you look? How much better could you serve your clients than your competitors? It's just a little food for thought as you consider writing the next chapter for your organization.

Tough economic times are not only about survival, but about building excellence into everything you do and taking the opportunity to create greater distance between you and your closest competitor. The way to do so is to compete with yourself. Getting your team together and evaluating your actual versus espoused priorities is a great place to start.

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Public Service & Priorities

Today, two days after father's day, America will lay to rest ones of its favorite sons. The tributes to Timothy J. Russert have shown a heartfelt consistency about how he lived his life. Tim Russert was dedicated to his real and professional families in a manner that should serve as an important reminder about our priorities. He brought passion to his work and his life, and he will be deeply missed.

Russert served as chief encouragement officer to his team and chief explaining officer to the American people. He was dedicated not only to asking the questions average Americans would like to ask their leaders, but more importantly, he cared enough for all of us to listen to their answers. He brought civility and fairness to American political discourse and its voice was heard clearly, even in a world where acrimony and partisanship tried so desperately to drown it out.

Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said that John and Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were men who would have chosen the same lives again despite their shortness of years because of the way they lived and the impact they had. Tim Russert was taken from this earth at only 58, yet his impact on this nation is undeniable. His commitment to those he knew personally and to those he did not was unmistakable.

For me, Meet the Press with Tim Russert has been a Sunday morning routine now for years. I took for granted that he would be there each and every week, where he would ground us, set the tone for the political debate for the following week, only to have to ground us again seven days later.

Lately PR professionals and journalists have been whining about mindless, meaningless issues. We'd all do well to follow the advice found on a sign that was prominently displayed in Russert's office, "Thou shalt not whine." Let us remember the selflessness, passion, and joy with which he lived his life and do our best to live it in our own.