79: The Four Tiers of Efficiency
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79: The Four Tiers of Efficiency Thank you for joining the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast! There’s one thing that’s true about every leader. You have a lot to do. It may be returning phone calls, answering emails, reviewing dashboards, making presentations, leading meetings…and that’s just the easy stuff. You’re also thinking about the budget, expanding a department, a person you may need to fire, or balancing family with career. You feel like you never have enough time, and there’s never enough of you to go around. So, let’s start with what we know about leadership: One of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to focus attention and activity toward a desired result. Unfortunately, the most challenging attention to direct is your own. People will constantly and consistently make urgent requests of you. And the urgent always screams louder than the important. The problem is that if you’re always responding to what’s urgent, you’ll inevitably sacrifice what’s important. Dwight D. Eisenhower puts it this way, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Four Tiers of Efficiency 1. Tier One—Absolutely Mission Critical: If these activities don’t happen, the organization or team doesn’t stay afloat. These activities drive missional outcomes—but they can be harder to focus on because they take longer to see through. They are longer term, so it’s critical you stay focused. 2. Tier Two—Very Important and Strategic: These things are important but not mission-critical. 3. Tier Three—Meaningful but Not Vital: These are activities that we enjoy and value, but they aren’t essential. 4. Tier Four—Externally Initiated and Lower Priority: These are activities, requests, and tasks that come from outside your office or team. The urgency felt by the asker does not have to be the urgency you meet it with. “If you always respond to what’s urgent, you’ll inevitably sacrifice what’s important.” —Craig Groeschel
Transcript of 79: The Four Tiers of Efficiency
79: The Four Tiers of Efficiency
Thank you for joining the Craig Groeschel Leadership Podcast! There’s one thing that’s true about every leader. You have a lot to do. It may be returning phone calls, answering emails, reviewing dashboards, making presentations, leading meetings…and that’s just the easy stuff. You’re also thinking about the budget, expanding a department, a person you may need to fire, or balancing family with career. You feel like you never have enough time, and there’s never enough of you to go around. So, let’s start with what we know about leadership: One of the primary responsibilities of leaders is to focus attention and activity toward a desired result. Unfortunately, the most challenging attention to direct is your own. People will constantly and consistently make urgent requests of you. And the urgent always screams louder than the important. The problem is that if you’re always responding to what’s urgent, you’ll inevitably sacrifice what’s important.
Dwight D. Eisenhower puts it this way, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” Four Tiers of Efficiency
1. Tier One—Absolutely Mission Critical: If these activities don’t happen, the organization or team doesn’t stay afloat. These activities drive missional outcomes—but they can be harder to focus on because they take longer to see through. They are longer term, so it’s critical you stay focused.
2. Tier Two—Very Important and Strategic: These things are important but not mission-critical.
3. Tier Three—Meaningful but Not Vital: These are activities that we enjoy and value, but they aren’t essential.
4. Tier Four—Externally Initiated and Lower Priority: These are activities, requests, and tasks that come from outside your office or team. The urgency felt by the asker does not have to be the urgency you meet it with.
“If you always respond to what’s urgent, you’ll inevitably sacrifice what’s important.” —Craig Groeschel
A good rule of thumb: if you have more than five core activities or responsibilities in your top tier, your top tier is too heavy. Remember, Tier One is reserved for mission-critical, only-you-can-do-it activities. If you have more than five, reevaluate. As you work through the activities that take up your week, pay special attention to the Tier Four items. This is usually the most urgent, largest bucket of tasks—and they often have the least to do with your core objectives. Your response can be “no” or “not now;” there is no shame or issue with those answers. Most leaders have many lower-tier activities robbing them of higher-tier priorities. Do first what matters most. Remember, you don’t change the world doing tier three and tier four activities! A question for you: Is it possible you or your team is overlooking a top-tier priority? If you don’t define your top tier, other people will decide for you. And what’s urgent to others will crowd out what’s important to you.
ACTIVITY—CHART YOUR WEEKLY ACTIVITIES It may seem tedious, but take a few minutes to write out a list of everything you do in a week. Look back at your calendar and email, and list out all the types of tasks, expectations, engagements, focus hours, meetings, decisions, etc. that you engage in every week. This list will become the basis for sorting your energy into your specific tiers in the section below.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. Look at your list. Where does each item fall in these four tiers?
Tier One: Absolutely mission critical
Tier Two: Very important and strategic
Tier Three: Meaningful but not vital
Tier Four: Externally initiated and lower priority
2. What lower-tier activities are robbing you from higher-tier priorities? What are you going to do about it?
“Your importance is not measured by how much you do, but by how much what you do matters.” —Craig Groeschel
“You will never maximize your effectiveness by responding to other people’s priorities.” —Craig Groeschel
PODCAST RESOURCES
• More from Craig: www.craiggroeschel.com • Download Leader Guides: www.life.church/leadershippodcast • Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: www.go2.lc/cglpitunes • Free Church Resources & Tools: www.life.church/churches
CONNECT WITH CRAIG • Ask questions: www.craiggroeschel.com/connect • Facebook: www.facebook.com/craiggroeschel • Twitter: @craiggroeschel • Instagram: @craiggroeschel
THREE KEYS TO SHARPEN YOUR LEADERSHIP Craig hand-picked three episodes designed to help you build a strong leadership foundation. You'll learn practical ways to influence your leaders, manage your time wisely, and improve how you communicate. Head to www.go2.lc/threekeys to get the episodes and leader guides sent right to your inbox. LEAVE A REVIEW If this podcast has made you a better leader, you can help share it by leaving quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you tune in. You can visit Apple Podcasts (www.go2.lc/itunes-cglp) or on your iOS device and then go to the “Reviews” section. There, you can leave a star rating or click on “Write a review” to share something you’ve gotten out of this podcast. Thank you for sharing!
