Priority Must Be Singular, Not Plural for Leaders

Proverbs 14:23 (NIV) All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Peter Drucker is often quoted in Pollard’s book, Serving Two Masters? Reflections on God and Profit. Pollard tells the story that Drucker had a way of keeping ServiceMaster’s executives on task by asking them continually the most important questions in business: Have you determined your priority? And, What are you doing to achieve the result?

Improved productivity is a major challenge facing companies, especially in this downturn. Focusing on the dignity of the worker is a major step in meeting the demands of process to achieve results. However, the focus must be not only on words, but also on the leader’s behavior. What you do speaks louder than what you say.

Management’s hard work includes developing systems to measure productivity, to continually share where workers are on the journey (beginning with where they have started and where they are going) and develop ways that all levels of management can really listen to those closest to the work.

Notice: there may be many activities, but there is only a single priority. The history of that word in our language [see Pollard’s book] reveals that is was not until the twentieth century that it acquired a plural form. It should never be a question of many priorities: just one.

Same with our personal lives: individuals must have a personal priority. Something that drives their decisions. A bedrock ethic against which all demands for time and focus can be based.

Do you know your personal priority?

Copyright ©2009 by P. Griffith Lindell