Q: “Many of my team members struggle with prioritization. What can I do to help them?”

A: Prioritization can be tricky because each organization, department, team, and individual may have different goals they are working toward and therefore, different priorities. The first step to helping your team determine what to do first is to facilitate an alignment conversation. Discuss their roles and responsibilities and how their daily tasks relate back to the team’s objectives and goals and the organization’s overall strategic plan. By doing this, team members will be able to gain new insights on how their daily tasks affect other people and departments and the success of the organization. Based on that conversation, work on a priority of work list together where typical projects/tasks can be bucketed. For example, client work, work for a particular supervisor, or work on a certain project may take priority over other admin activities. Once a general priority of work outline is established, remember to periodically check back in on this as priorities often change over time. And finally, offering time management resources, tips and tools can help team members manage these priorities effectively. Tools such as timeboxing allow individuals to “braindump” all of their priorities, sort them from lowest priority to highest priority, and box out specific time on their daily calendar where they will work on that priority.

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