If you’re like most technical leaders I’m working with, you finished your 2022 planning and you realise there’s not a lot of time until the end of the year. Although there are 10 calendar weeks left until the end of 2021, there’s often the big holiday season. For the Americas, it’s events like Thanksgiving and for other parts of the world, Christmas and or the period running up to the new year.

Time constraints are a great tool to help us refocus. With unlimited time, we feel we can accomplish anything, but a great time management technique is to pick shorter time-boxes. Answer the question, “What is the (one) most important thing to complete before the end of the year?” Once you have answered that, make sure you communicate this and connect it to everyone’s actions.

A key part of good leadership is reminding people of their team mission and their current goal that contributes toward it. In knowledge-based work and the confusion of trying to please everyone, you might notice people working on less important work.

Your challenge for this week is to answer the question above and to make sure you communicate this (ideally several times before the end of the year) to refocus your team.

Enjoy this week’s newsletter and be sure to pass it on to a friend or colleague.

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