How to prioritize my work as a manager: start with the point on the horizon
David Buirs is a leadership and executive coach in Amsterdam who works with managers and senior leaders in executive coaching engagements. This article explains how to prioritize your work as a manager by starting with a vision, objectives and KPIs. It then covers how to delegate, who to give a task to, and the three things to pass on when you hand work over.
How to prioritize my work as a manager? I get this question often. Usually from someone with a full calendar and a list that grows every day. The answer starts one step before that list. Prioritizing becomes possible once you know where you are taking your team. You need a direction, in two forms. A vision that says where you are going. And measurable goals that show whether you are getting there. After that, choosing gets simple. And then you give part of the work away.
How to prioritize my work as a manager: you need a map first
A common definition of leadership: taking a group of people towards a goal and motivating them to get there. That calls for a destination. Without one, every task looks equally important. Your inbox ends up setting the order.
Your map has three parts. A vision, objectives and KPIs. Together they tell you where you are heading, which milestones you pass along the way, and what shows you it is working.
What a vision is
A vision is the picture of the future you are taking your team towards. It has an idealistic character. It describes what you stand for and what that produces for the people you serve.
An example. "In our team, safety, connection and creativity are the values we work by, so we can design products that make our customers' lives easier and safer."
A vision gives meaning to the work. People move for a picture that speaks to them. A percentage rarely does that.
What objectives and KPIs are
Objectives are the milestones on the way to your vision. They mark what has to be finished, and by when. Every objective has an end date and an owner.
A short term objective: by the end of this quarter, every team member runs their own releases. A long term objective: within two years we deliver the standard the other teams build on.
KPI stands for key performance indicator. It is a measurable unit of a result. Ten new clients before the first of December. Revenue growth of fifteen percent. An average lead time of three days.
The milestone says where you are heading. The number shows how far along you are. Pick two or three KPIs per objective. Measuring more creates fog.
From goals to priorities
With a vision, objectives and KPIs on the table, prioritizing becomes close to arithmetic. You put your task list next to them. You ask one question. Which task brings us closest to those goals?
That task is your priority. The rest drops down the list. Some tasks disappear altogether.
I see this step create discomfort in many managers. You spent years scoring points by picking everything up. Choosing means you let go of something a colleague asked you for. That gets easier, and it takes time.
Do I do this myself, or hand it over?
Once your priorities are clear, the second question arrives. Does this have to be mine?
For a large part of your work the answer is no. Delegating does two things at once. It frees up your calendar for the work only you can do. And it develops the people in your team, because they grow from work that is new to them.
Delegating is a development tool. Every task you hand over is a learning moment for someone else.
Who do you give it to?
Three questions help you choose.
Is there capacity? Loading someone with an overloaded week gives you half a result.
Do they enjoy this kind of work? Tasks that match someone's interest get more attention on their own.
Is it challenging? This is the most important question. Work someone can finish half asleep bores them. Work far above their level brings stress and sleepless nights. The learning zone lies in between.
So look for the team member who finds this task challenging. That means they can finish it, with the odd mistake along the way. And that is fine. The growth lives there.
Accept eighty percent
This is where many managers trip up. You hand over a task and the result comes back at eighty percent of what you would have made of it.
For most of your work that is fine. The task is done. You kept your time. Someone learned something. Next time it comes back at ninety percent.
Some tasks make that gap too expensive. A presentation to the board. A conversation with your biggest client after a mistake. Those you do yourself. That category stays small. Which is exactly why it works.
How to hand a task over
When you delegate, you pass on three things.
1. The end result. Describe what "done" looks like.
2. The deadline. Give a concrete date.
3. The priority. Say how important this is next to their other work.
Managers skip that third point most often. Without it, people guess about what to drop when the week gets busy.
The how belongs to them. They pick the route. They may approach it differently than you would. Their development lives in that choice. Anyone who prescribes the how hands out tasks and keeps the thinking.
Back to your map
How to prioritize my work as a manager? You start with your vision. You translate it into objectives and KPIs. You put your task list next to them and pick what brings you closest. For every task left, you ask whether someone in your team gains more from it than you do.
What makes this hard is that the first step is quiet work. Thinking about direction feels like a luxury when your calendar is full. Taking that time is the work of a manager.
Many managers know what their priorities should be, and still walk past them in practice. In an executive coaching engagement we look together at what holds you back from choosing, letting go and handing work over. Interested or curious? Let's chat. Plan your free introduction here.
