Learn to ?Wrap? up the ‘Big Things’ First (Opinion)

Is your team perpetuating a culture of winning or “when’ing?”

You know the refrain: “When I get a chance.” “When we get that big order.” “When the rush season is over.” “When we do something about the weak link.”

Many times, “when” is the weak link.

Who among us hasn’t been so covered up with ordinary tasks that we’ve chosen to delay a more significant, albeit daunting, project in order to “cross off” all the little things that can be done quickly? We all do it.

The thing to guard against is allowing busy work to become a pacifier. It can give a semblance of accomplishment in lieu of reaching more valuable milestones.

For managers, the first challenge is clearly communicating what’s on your front burner of true priorities. It’s hard not to get bogged down in a malaise of mundane little duties that squeak loudly for grease but yield little traction.

Delegating is tough for some, but if you lead a team that constantly relies on you for perfunctory paperwork, you’re probably not maximizing your potential role.

The second challenge is placing real value on winning at the big things first. Customer service – external and intradepartmental – is the kind of thing that gets lost in paperwork and procedures if we’re not careful. Mending company culture flaws, continually raising the bar for product quality and drilling down for smart ways to improve profitability have to take precedence over all else.

The devil in those details is being able to recognize what really are “big things.” Almost invariably, they’re not self serving but support overall company goals.

Finally – and this is the one that trips us all up – is holding yourself and your team, accountable. Be clear not only about what team members will be graded on, but on how you are being graded. If you’re the company owner and answer to yourself, explain how you evaluate your own work and the company overall. Better yet, establish a list of priorities and ask the team to help hold you accountable for staying on track.

It feels good to get a slew of nagging items off our daily “to do” lists. But focusing so intently on the near term can actually be a form of escapism used to keep from having to truly deal with our business, or even ourselves.

Sometimes it requires a paradigm shift in personal behavior to square off with the big things first. Sometimes, it requires a formal restructuring of company policies or personnel to achieve this mindset throughout an organization.

But when the priority light bulb is switched on, the results are quite noticeable.

Since it’s retail season, here’s one quick example of a front line employee who has apparently bought in to taking care of “the big things:”

While rounding up a long list of Christmas presents under a tight travel deadline, I ended the evening by rushing into the Dillard’s at Rogers’ Pinnacle Hills Promenade. Unbeknownst to me, it was literally five minutes before the store was set to close.

Counsel from my mother had sent me to the Estée Lauder counter in pursuit of some Youth-Dew Dusting Powder for my grandmother. Having had no idea there even was such a thing, I was in dire need of direction.

The makeup clerk, Susan, was giving me a product primer when it became obvious the store was closing. The manager locked the front door. Workers began filing down escalators and out of counters to head home.

I offered not once but several times to get out of Susan’s hair and to come back another day. Not only did she insist it was no trouble coaching me through the purchase, she stayed probably 15 minutes past closing to gift wrap the present with a hand-made bow.

She obviously had the customary straightening and register close-out sequence yet to get through, but she never shifted focus from the customer. And this for what would probably be considered a small-to middle-sized purchase.

After thanking her profusely for staying on my behalf, she beamed, “It is our pleasure to help you, please come back.”

At the very end of what I am certain was a very long day, here’s a team member not thinking about how much her feet hurt or how ready she was to get off the clock.

Regardless of the size of its package, Susan was simply taking care of a big thing.