Surviving Poor Management 21: Focus on What Matters

This continues our series on how to survive poor management at work and grow

Margaret shared advice with one of her colleagues. She highlighted the need to focus on what matters. She highlighted how easy unimportant or non-essential issues distract us from what matters most. She follows her own advice and became one of the top 4 producing operations in 120 operation chain. Her focus allowed her to out produce operations with four times the potential clients as her market. Focusing on what matters most also helped her survive the frustrations of poor management.

Identify What Matters Most

A key to surviving poor management will require you to focus on what matters most, rather than those things related to the poor management. Each company, each project team, will define what matters most for them. The company culture also influences what matters most. For example, some organization may perceive the following as what matters most:

• Honor may matter more than sales or success
• Protecting client relationships and goodwill may matter more than revenues
• Courteous, kind interactions with co-workers, management, and subordinates
• Providing the best possible service or product at the lowest possible cost
• Innovation and creativity in product development, research and design
• Moral and ethical leadership and practices may take priority over profits
• Sales, revenues, and profits may matter more than any other issue

Your mentor, supervisor, network of contacts can provide guidance and help you identify what matters most. You should establish charts, graphs, discussions, and other prompts to keep you focused on what matters most.

Avoid Distractions from What Matters Most

Distractions appear in every business and every situation. You may think that the majority of distractions will clearly declare themselves as low priority issues preventing you from focusing on what matters most. Occasionally, that may be. Frequently, distractions carry their own priority. For example:

• Procedural changes or requirements established by management may demand your attention
• Clients require attention that will not lead to immediate sales or success, but take your time and attention

Monday, October 7, we begin a new series about improving yourself to improve your career

This blog will improve as you submit comments, questions, and experiences. We will answer your questions in future blog posts. Please submit your comments and questions so we can answer them.