FEATURED ARTICLE
The
Important and The Urgent |
by James Friedman
One mistake commonly made by both Business Owners
and Managers is a tendency to focus vast amounts of time and energy on the urgent issues
of the business, while virtually ignoring the important. At first glance, it may seem that
these two are indistinguishable, virtually identical. However, they are not, and
understanding the difference is key to maintaining operational control.
The urgent can be defined as those duties or tasks that are time critical, that have a
deadline that must not be missed, lest the company should suffer serious negative
consequences. One example of an urgent task is the timely completion of payroll. Failure
to present employees with their paychecks in a timely manner, may cause an uproar among
the employees.
The important is defined as those duties or tasks that are critical in order for the
company to achieve its overall goals. Setting company budgets is an example of an activity
that is crucial for goals to be met.
Tasks and duties can be broken down into four categories: 1)Highly urgent, and highly
important, 2)Highly urgent, but not important, 3)Not urgent, but highly important, and 4)
Not urgent or important.
Most managers correctly focus make the first category of duties their number one priority.
However, managers frequently go astray when establishing the next set of priorities. All
too often, category two duties are given priority over category three duties. What this
means, is that an entire range of duties essential to the overall company goals is often
neglected.
One sterling example that comes to mind is the Controller at one of my client’s who
indicated when asked that she did not have time for budgeting. If the budget is the path
to the profit goal, and the profit is the reason the company is in business, how can you
not have time for budgeting? What could be more important? The answer is that nothing was
more important, but the Controller was bogged down with the urgent.
This is not always the problem in itself, but is often a symptom of reactive rather than
proactive management, or firefighting. The key is to prevent time critical tasks from
reaching the stage where they require constant focus from upper management. The higher a
position is within the organization, the less urgent and the more important the
responsibilities should be.
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James Friedman is a graduate of the
internationally acclaimed Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He
has a background of top management positions in industry for over 14 years, specializing
in operations management and financial controls. He has spent the last three years as a
business consultant with top companies in the consulting industry, specializing in the
design and implementation of financial controls and systems, budget creation, and
organizational design. He has consulted clients in a wide variety of industries including
manufacturing, construction, service industries, wholesale, and retail businesses.
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