IntelliCoach: Help your Team Members cut through messy Priorities! + LIVE event on 21 July!

Still 16 spots left for the even on 21 July! + Help your Team Members cut through messy Priorities!

Help your Team Members cut through messy priorities!

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This week, let's cut through the noise and help our team members (and maybe also ourselves?) clarify priorities and establish focus. We use a simple technique that we elevate to a coaching tool: The 135 list ("one three five").

The "One Three Five" List

The idea behind it is simple:

135 refers to 1 item you MUST do, 3 you SHOULD do and 5 that you CAN do.

1x MUST

When we follow this framework, we first help others unapologetically define the 1 Big Thing that MUST be completed today. For most people, the most beneficial candidate for this is something that is super important, yet not very urgent, i.e. an ideal procrastination candidate. Getting this item done means = it was a good day!

3x SHOULD

Then we help them note down 3 Medium Things that really SHOULD be completed today. These are high value activities, but if not all of them get done today, life still goes on.

5x CAN

Lastly, help team members define 5 Small Things that they CAN complete. If they have the time. They add value but are not as urgent. No problem moving them to the next day.

Lastly: You STRICTLY work from top to bottom.

(My own example 135 list for Friday 16th July 2021)

What is the idea behind it?

It reduces complexity and focuses on few essential things

And frankly, with all the meetings in your team member's calendar + emergencies that are certainly going to happen, getting more than 5-9 dedicated things done in a day is a miracle.

It gives a benchmark for success.

Having completed their 135 list, many people will say that it gives a concrete sense of accomplishment (similar to the wonderful idea around yesterbox.com which can accomplish the same thing for email). Work will never stop coming in. Use this method to help your team member define a criteria what success can look like today.

"But this won’t work for me and my team members with all the things going on."

Understood. Life is busy. Emergencies happen. Let me add one quote: ‘Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.’ 😊

How to use the 135-list as a Leader Coaching tool?

Partner FIRST and give them a real choice to say NO to the 135 list

More important than anything else, as a Leader Coach you don't just dump this framework on your team member and make it mandatory. Instead, you switch into partnering mode and make a genuine offer that your team member can safely decline: 'I can see that you have many priorities and in today's 1-1 you want me to help you on this. I would like to offer that we use a simple thinking model to help us prioritise. It's called the 135 list. Have you heard of it? Would you be ok to try it out and see whether it works for us?'

Help your Team Members distinguish between MUST, SHOULD and CAN

Ask your team member, what is the 1 thing that they absolutely MUST do, a few things that they SHOULD accomplish and a number of things they CAN accomplish. The discussion and 'negotiation' on the difference can be quite illuminating. Help them explore and define the positive impact it will make to accomplish these today. Dig deeper especially on the MUST and SHOULD items. Find out together what obstacles they need to address today to make sure they succeed.

It is very useful to observe and listen how your team members categorise work into MUST, SHOULD or CAN. You might not agree and that is a great thing to notice as a neutral observation and without judgement.

Instead of delivering your verdict right away (‘Actually, I think this one here has to be a MUST. Let me tell you why..’), respect their first choice and dig a bit deeper to find out what assumptions underpin their decision (‘What factors lead to your decision to make this a CAN, not a SHOULD or MUST? How do you think we will achieve our set goals nonetheless?’).

You might be surprised to discover some assumptions you held on your own. Listening and sharing observations keeps doors open. Judging and telling closes them.

Apply for today, this week, this month, this quarter, this year….

You can use this method on multiple time dimensions and without even sharing the framework itself: Run it for a meeting (‘What is the 1 thing we MUST get out of this?’).

Run it for a yearly plan strategy meeting (‘What is the 1 thing, the organisation MUST accomplish above anything else this coming year?’) and of course for anything in between, from daily, weekly, to monthly and quarterly sessions.

Summary

The 135 list is a simple framework that we can apply as a Leader Coach to help team members prioritise and cut through the noise. It allows the definition of 1 Big Thing that MUST be done, 3 Medium Things that SHOULD be done and 5 Small Things that CAN be done.

The success of this tool as a coaching framework depends on how much ownership we give our team member: (1) autonomy to accept/reject the framework in the first place and (2) autonomy to define and justify prioritisation themselves to build a strong sense of ownership.

That leads me to a last and very important point: This tool (as in any coaching tools) is only appropriate if the team member has an actual choice. If you are in a real burning platform situation and the MUST item is clear, there is no need for a coaching approach to 'lead' your team member to an already set decision.

A coaching approach is not always the right way, but it's the most powerful style choice way more often than most Leaders realise.

Good luck! Maik

p.s. Hope you enjoyed this. As a newsletter subscriber, you get our articles weeks before we publish them publicly, likely on LinkedIn. Please use your power wisely:)

LAST CALL: JOIN THE JULY EVENT ON 21 JULY!

I am completely blown away by the interest in my very first public learning event. It will happen in just a few days. More than a hundred people have signalled their interest on LinkedIN

There are still 16 free spots left!!

Of the 115 people who clicked 'attend' on LinkedIn at this time of writing, 24 have followed through so far by commenting with their communication goal + actually signing up to the event. So there are still 16 free spots left!

Therefore: The normal cover charge for this event is 99 USD, and if you are quick and leave a comment at this post below with a communication skill that you want to grow further in (we should ALL have!), I will be happy to still personally send you a full 99 USD voucher!

POST YOUR COMMENT HERE

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6818335921193271296/

All the best and keep your inquiring mindset going!

Cheers, Maik

Have a great week ahead!