One of the most important things you can do for your career, your success and your sanity, is to be more Responsive and less Reactive.
There is constant pressure to do the urgent things that come in, and these days people are trying very hard to preserve their value in a tough economy and job market.
So they don’t want to be seen as saying “no”.
Put points on the board
It’s important to realize that the real hazard is not about saying “no”, it’s in trying to do too much, then failing to deliver on the few things that really matter.
Being reactive is shooting yourself in the foot.
You may think you are being valuable to your company by working tirelessly on everything that comes your way, but if you don’t deliver excellent and visible results where it counts, your company will not give you any credit for being responsive or working hard.
Be Responsive on select things
Success, relevance and recognition come from getting things done that impact the business.
The trick is to appear to be responsive without actually responding to everything.
Here is a key thought:
Always think about aligning your responsiveness to your Ruthless Priorities, instead of trying to be responsive everywhere.
(Ruthless Priorities are those few things that have so much impact on the business that you refuse to put them at risk, and are willing to risk other things to make sure they get done.)
Be extra-responsive where it matters most, instead of putting all that pressure on yourself to react to everything that comes in.
1. Know your Ruthless Priorities. This requires you give yourself some strategic thinking time. Be clear with yourself and others about what your Ruthless Priorities are, and make sure they are the things that have the biggest impact on the business.
2. Filter all emails and requests of your time based on your Ruthless Priorities. if actions and requests help you get your Ruthless Priorities done, be highly responsive — if they don’t, delete or delay.
3. Focus on your most important stakeholders, your boss, board members, key clients, etc. Filter all your email and requests so you can respond quickly to those few key people — the ones you most need to see you as being responsive.
Ways to appear extra responsive,
…without getting sucked into being reactive.
The well placed weekend Email:
You don’t need to do email all weekend or all evening (reactive), but take 10 minutes each evening or weekend and do a quick triage. If you get something from a key stakeholder and can answer a question quickly, do it. You get lots of responsiveness points for the quick reply and the weekend time stamp, without actually working on the weekend.
If it is a much longer task, but not required to be completed on the weekend, just fire back, got your message, will be thinking about it and get back to you by noon on Monday. That is the difference between responsive and reactive.
Got it, thanks
When people send you things, respond immediately with something like, “got it, thanks, more later…” That may be the only thing you will ever have to do!
Remember, you don’t have to DO everything. But that simple acknowledgment will show you as someone who is responsive.
Think about it… when you send off something that matters to you, don’t you wonder and want to know if they got it and what they think? Just hearing back from them at all, makes them register with you as someone who is responsive.
Why do you care?
When people ask you to do work for them, read something, review something, call someone, etc., if it does not help one of your ruthless priorities, deflect it, delegate it, or say no. Since it is not critical to your Ruthless Priorities, if it is not perfect, what you do you care? Let it go. Don’t try and add value everywhere or resolve everything. That is being reactive.
When it matters, get all over it. Be responsive and be seen as being responsive. Respond with an action plan and a schedule. I will get this done by Thursday and will let you know that it is done. That is being responsive.
