Many of the high capacity, high energy inside entrepreneurs we know share a common struggle. Unfortunately, they often don’t recognize it as a struggle, and they risk never realizing their potential impact because of it…
High capacity, high energy leaders who have a diverse set of skills are often capable of doing lots of different types of projects, tasks, thinking, leading and “doing.” They throw themselves into countless projects, teams, roles and responsibilities. Their intentions are almost always right:
- “I’m pretty good at this.”
- “I have the experience that this team needs.”
- “I would really enjoy doing this.”
- “This team needs me, and I feel flattered that they asked me to lead them.”
- “It really won’t take me that long.”
These individuals then busy themselves, and make solid contributions, but often feel like they are running on a treadmill — never really going anywhere, but getting a good workout nonetheless. The reality is that these folks struggle to prioritize tasks and contributions that they could make, simply because they know they can make them.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean that you should.
Think of some of the busiest people you know. Chances are, they are not the most successful, satisfied people you know. The successful, satisfied ones are probably those who are quite capable of doing a wide variety of things, but ultimately, they’ve chosen to be great at a few things.
To successfully prioritize among things that you are good at, we suggest you focus on two key questions:
- What are you uniquely good at? This is a tougher question than it appears. You may feel that you can do many things better than others. Or that the way you do something is better than another way. But, arguably, neither of those point to things that you uniquely can do.
- What are you passionate about? Here’s a clue on this one — the tasks that you rarely procrastinate on; the projects that you seem to “lose track of time” because you’re so involved and engaged — these are often indicators of work you have deep conviction and commitment to. Another clue — when you talk about something that you’re working on, do you physically “come to life?” Do you start to use more non verbals in your communication, talk more excitedly, feel yourself smiling more and more energized vs. things that sap your energy?
Inside entrepreneurs that practice prioritizing among things they are good at understand that, by choosing, they aren’t downplaying a skill or competency, rather they are more fully developing and activating themselves.
Photo licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 via Flickr user: kevindooley
