A small team of participants who were deeply engaged in the learning journey were stuck. Thirty 
minutes into running a computer-based leadership simulation designed to develop their leadership skills, they came to a complete standstill when it came time to making decisions around priorities. As the facilitator of the simulation workshop, I listened intently to the conversation. One participant said, “I have no idea what we should do next because the way we have set up the business, we have competing business priorities.” While another shared; “Well, we better do something quickly because just like in the real world, we don’t have forever. Just make up your minds as to what’s important”
Even though this conversation occurred in a simulation, the same conversation occurs millions of times a day in business organizations around the world and is a foundational challenge to most business leaders.
How do you manage competing business priorities? How do we know which priority is more important than another? Too often, competing priorities is the business result in conflicts that create dysfunctional behaviors, or worse, disengaged and less productive team members.
In order to help leaders understand and embrace this leadership challenge, I have created five tips to help lead when there are competing priorities. These tips are meant to provide a framework of strategic leadership thinking.
The value proposition to customers is the first place to start
The first and only place to start a discussion on developing a framework for dealing with competing priorities is with the value proposition to customers. The value proposition is your strategy for delivering a product or service to customers that they will pay you for at a profit. There are three unique value propositions in business – Cost Leadership, Customer Focus, and Product Innovation Focus – that should set the stage for everything. For example, if your company’s value proposition is Product Innovation, then anytime there is a competing priority, the easy decision is to go with the choice that helps deliver the most innovative products to the market. If your value proposition is a customer focus, then the choice in a competing priority should be the decisions that help you deliver customer service and customization to your select customers.
Core values
The second place to go is your company’s core values (assuming your company has them.) Core values are the soul of any company and can include things such as safety, respect for people, an action orientation, or creating green, sustainable, environmentally friendly products. As a leader, you should understand your core values and leverage them to help you decide between competing priorities.
Resources available
Sometimes deciding between competing priorities is as simple as having the resources available. As a leader, you need to know what resources you have and what you need. You then need to understand the costs associated with resources and make the best business decision that will provide both short- and long-term returns.
Personality styles
The fourth factor may surprise you; understanding the personality styles of the people involved with the competing resources. Different styles may be more dominant and some may be more passive. As we all unfortunately know, the “squeaky wheel” often gets the grease so be careful that conflicts around priorities are not arising because of different styles. By understanding different personality styles, you can read the signals of situations and make decisions based on your perceptions of the styles asking for their priorities to be approved.
Agility
The final tip to help you lead when there are competing priorities is agility. In this case, there are two types of agility; organizational agility and personal agility. As a leader, you must understand and manage both at the same time. Do a quick assessment and grade out on a scale of 0-100 your company’s overall agility and the agility of the people you work with. Think about why you scored your answer the way you did. The more agility a company has, the easier it is to manage competing priorities. For example, if you function well in situations that are ambiguous, you will be able to make competing priority decisions. If there is a lack of agility, it will be very difficult to make the decisions needed when there are competing priorities. If you are working in an environment that has significant competing priorities and you want to be successful, the secret to success is to hire and develop people to have high levels of agility.
