organization

How to Prioritize When Everything Is a Priority

I talked to a client last week, the president of a business I’ve worked with for years. In the past, I would have described her as generally cool as a cucumber. But not this time. 
 
In this conversation, she showed up with an almost frantic energy, seeking help with their organization design, her span of control, a plan to re-engage an overwhelmed and exhausted workforce, a talent retention strategy, and an employee development roadmap.
 
I let her put it all out there. Then I asked if she could prioritize for me. She told me that was her prioritized list!
 
I don’t think she’s alone. And I don’t think it’s only upper management feeling this way.
 
These days we’re all feeling like everything is on fire. And as more of us are working remotely or in a hybrid fashion, we’re missing those in-person cues that help us interpret where our leaders are feeling the greatest angst.
 
For those of us who are high-achievers (ahem), our default tends to be to just prioritize everything. Which is, of course, the worst idea. Because it heightens the risk of burnout, of a ball dropping, of the quality of something suffering somewhere.
 
Wading through chaos is a rule and no longer an exception. It’s a skill we all need to build and show off on the regular.
 
So what can you do when it feels like everything is a priority and there’s just no way to get it all done well?
 
Here are four steps you can take.

1. Begin with boldness

Sometimes, overfilling our plates can leave us feeling like superheroes. But candidly—and here comes some tough love—it’s kind of the lazy person’s game. Because pushing for clarity takes courage, energy, and a willingness to be vulnerable—to admit you can’t handle everything (because of your being human and all).
 
So, start by recognizing it’s your job to seek clarity, to raise the flag. Likely you’re the only one who really knows just how much is on your plate. No one else is keeping track. Therefore, it’s on you to step up and manage your boundaries and your energy.
 
Doing this well and with confidence means shifting your mindset from victim to victor.
 
Here’s what this might sound like in practice.
 
Instead of “I’m really sorry—I’m struggling to handle it all,” try “I’m unwilling to let anything fall through the cracks, so let’s prioritize all these tasks/projects to ensure the most critical are getting our best energy and focus.”
 
You know you’re impressed by that bold confidence to say we need to prioritize. 
 
This mindset shift positions you as someone thoughtful, strategic, and in control. Remember, your energy is a company asset. You’re the only one who can protect it.

2. Assess the whole landscape

Predictability is so very 2019. Uncertainty is the name of the game, and likely will be for some time.
 
The reality is that what’s important today may be irrelevant tomorrow but back on fire the following day. Everything is relative.
 
I’m sure if you were to look at each task or project on your plate in a vacuum, each of them would come out high as a priority.
 
The key is relativity. Look around you. What’s going on today? Has anything important popped up?
 
My client, Megan, was preparing for an upcoming quarterly business review, interviewing candidates for an open role on her team, and reviewing customer feedback data in order to advise the client management team. These were her top priorities. 
 
Her boss pinged her the other day to ask her to oversee a review of all their sales materials.
 
Now on its own, reviewing sales materials is an important task. But given the fact that she’s got an empty headcount, some customers are grumbling, and that quarterly business review can’t be postponed, she considered the ask in context and had an honest conversation with her boss.
 
Given everything she had on her plate, Megan knew she couldn’t simply add this to the list. She didn’t apologize for not being a superhero. Instead, explained to her boss what she was already working on, and then asked if he agreed that reviewing the sales materials fell to the relative bottom of the list.
 
He agreed, thanked her for being thoughtful about what was realistic, and asked another member of his team to take on the review.

3. Look for—don’t reinvent—the wheel 

High-achievers are great at many things… but leveraging things built by others often isn’t one of them. 
 
Truth is, when something at work needs to be done, chances are something has already been created that can either solve the problem or offer a solid head start. We don’t always need to reinvent the wheel.
 
Borrowing from others doesn’t make you lazy, it makes you strategic and frees you up to invest your energy where it matters most.
 
As Megan began preparing for the quarterly business review, rather than starting from a blank page, she asked her colleagues to share materials from past reviews that went successfully. This gave her an idea of how to structure and format her data and tell her story in a compelling way.
 
What do you have at the top of your list? Do you need to develop a pitch or write a customer service script or develop a new policy or procedure? Whatever it is, before you begin, do a little digging around you.
 
Borrow the great work that someone has already done, give credit where it’s due, and remember that your job is to deliver the best outcome—it doesn’t all have to be hand-crafted by you.

4. Consider options beyond yes and no

One of the themes I hear in nearly every leadership program I run is “We know we’re supposed to prioritize, but it’s so hard to say no here.”
 
And I regularly push back, asserting that “yes” and “no” are two of many options available to us.
 
“Yes” is the answer when something is obviously urgent, important, and positioned to mitigate a big risk or deliver a major outcome or result.
 
But when a hearty yes isn’t an option for you, here are a few alternatives to “no” you might consider:
  • Delay: I’d love to take that on, but I’m currently managing [X projects]—can we reassess next month once some of these have wrapped?
  • Collaboration: I’d be happy to help. Would you be able to create an outline or first draft and then I can add my point of view?
  • Suggest an alternative: I hesitate to take that on as it’s outside my area of expertise. I’m pretty sure [insert your favorite subject matter expert] could do it much more accurately and efficiently!
The key is to recognize there are many ways to add value without taking on the entire burden yourself.
 
So there you have it. As you look at your plate, how full is it? Is your workload manageable? If you’re feeling overwhelmed, borrow one of these strategies and see how it works out for you.

Guide to Flight School Loans

To pursue a career as a pilot, aviators need to attend flight school. While learning how to fly a plane looks a lot different than the more traditional college experience, a proper education is a key element of becoming a pilot. Unfortunately, similar to a four-year college, flight school isn’t free. Let’s take a closer […]

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Guide to Low-Income Student Loans

As a low-income student, figuring out how to attend college can seem like a grueling process. It’s not even unheard of for college students to face insecurity with their housing situation. A study published in 2021 found that of students surveyed across 22 schools, 44.1% were classified as food insecure, while 52.3% were experiencing housing […]

The post Guide to Low-Income Student Loans appeared first on SoFi.

What Are Student Loans for Military Dependents?

Military members, veterans, and their families have some special options when it comes to funding higher education, and given the cost of attending college, they’re well worth checking into. In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the best student loans for military dependents: children, spouses, and sometimes other relatives of an active duty […]

The post What Are Student Loans for Military Dependents? appeared first on SoFi.

How to (Safely!) Take Risks at Work

There’s a trail of companies behind us—from Polaroid to Blockbuster to Blackberry (and countless others my kids have never heard of)—that ultimately failed because they didn’t innovate.
 
Once they found their formula for success, they took their eyes off the ball. And when they weren’t looking, crafty new business models emerged, taking risks that paid off.
 
Companies need to be innovating today more than ever—in ways big and small. And innovation requires risk-taking, which means that individual people need to be taking the risks. But taking risks is scary. What if you get it wrong?
 
We all know of someone who took a big chance and had a big fall. So how do you develop the comfort and confidence to take risks without worrying you’re putting your job on the line?
 
The good news is there are ways you can manage and mitigate risk, giving your great ideas their moment in the sun without leaving you feeling that unemployment is imminent. 

1. Begin with context 

All risks are not created equal. While there are many variations out there, one of the most critical is the informed versus the uninformed risk. As you’ve likely guessed, it’s the informed variety you should strive to take.
 
What makes a risk informed is effectively doing a bit of discovery. When you take the time to really understand the context—to define an opportunity at hand—then your risk suddenly becomes a solution to a problem rather than a shiny object.
 
Years ago, my brother had aspirations of starting his own business. But talk about a risky move!
 
So, he took a job with a recruiting firm that placed technical talent within organizations. It turns out technical talent and jobs come in many shapes and sizes. And my brother quickly realized there was an opportunity to specialize in a very specific brand of technical. He pitched his boss, his boss wasn’t interested, so my brother went out on his own.
 
Ten years later, my brother is the go-to guy when it comes to the particular niche he chose.
 
By the time he started his business, it no longer felt like a risk—a thing he wanted to do. It became a solution to a problem—a thing he felt compelled to do. And the thing that moved him into the zone of confidence was context. 
 
Maybe you lead a marketing team and there’s a new campaign you’ve been wanting to launch. Or you run a retail store and you have an inventive merchandising vision. Or you manage the front desk at a medical practice, and you’d like to reinvent the way you connect with new patients.
 
Before you fall in love with your idea, start with context. What’s happening around you? What’s working well, what’s feeling clunky or missing? What do your customers or patients need that they aren’t presently getting?
 
Answer those questions before you begin envisioning the risk you’d like to take. This will force you to keep things practical and purposeful—risk-mitigating factors. 

2. Think big and shrink it

“Go big or go home” is one of those ideas that sounds great at the gym or on a bumper sticker. But personally, I’m not a fan.
 
Sometimes “think big but start small” is the way to go. 
 
I was still working for a big company back when the open-concept workspace became a trend. Suddenly all the big research firms were pitching the open office as a means of driving collaboration, creativity, and productivity.
 
Big companies ate the idea up, and suddenly cubicles and offices were tumbling down, and you couldn’t take two steps without banging a knee on a space-age sofa or a foosball table.
 
It felt like it happened overnight. The change was significant, the financial investments unthinkable. 
 
Turns out, it totally backfired. Suddenly people had nowhere to go and think or have a private conversation or get their heads-down work done. Everything became noise—a distraction. Productivity and collaboration were ultimately reduced and people started working from home more often.
 
These complete workspace overhauls were gargantuan efforts. But by the time their impact became clear, it was too late to turn back. 
 
Hindsight is 20/20, but if those companies had started by transforming just a single floor and had people work in it for a few months, they’d have learned early about the negative impacts, and could have reworked their plans.
 
They went too big too fast. And this is a lesson in thinking big but starting small.
 
So, what’s your big idea, and how can you shrink it down to a tiny test?
 
Can you mock up that marketing campaign and test it with just a handful of loyal customers to get their feedback? 
 
Shrinking your idea down to a test minimizes the risk. You haven’t climbed too high, so the fall—if you have one—is unlikely to hurt. You just get up and try again. And if your idea is a win, then you build it out from there.
 
Suddenly risk doesn’t seem so terrifying, right?

3. Have a learning plan

The real problem with the open-office debacle is that a decision got made, and success was the only option. There was no backup plan, no strategy to address the question of “what if this new design doesn’t deliver the results we need?”
 
The real issue wasn’t the idea, it was the lack of a plan that would unlock learning, pivoting, and reimagining along the way.
 
If you’re envisioning that new marketing campaign, you could develop the campaign, send it to your entire database, and cross your fingers.
 
Or you can determine which variables you’re going to test (email subject lines? Discounts and offers?), which customer segments you’re going to engage, and what metrics you’ll look at to provide insight.
 
In combination with your think-big-start-small strategy, your tiny test gives you feedback you can leverage as you go. Which subject line performed best with your test audience? That’s the one you send to the masses. And what is it about the subject lines that didn’t perform well that might inform your future campaigns?
 
When you take this approach you’re never failing. You’re either winning or you’re learning. And both of these outcomes are of service to you and your company.

4. Spread the word 

Taking that first risk—even small and planned—may still feel scary. But if you’re intentional, you’ll learn something essential that will move you forward.
 
Then you just need to do it again. And you need those around you doing the same until risk-taking becomes a habit ingrained in how you do business.
 
Telling stories is one of the greatest ways to begin to build a habit. Instead of preaching about the value of risk-taking, share your own story of what you did, what you learned, and what impact it delivered to the team or organization.
 
Stories make things real and memorable. They also set you up as the hero of your story. Position yourself as the ambassador of risk-taking and watch your star soar.

Student Loan Rehabilitation: What It Is and How It Works

Student loan default rehabilitation is a one-time opportunity to clear the default on a federal student loan. It also allows you to regain eligibility for federal student aid after your loans have gone into default. With student loan rehabilitation, you can work with lenders to create a new payment plan that is theoretically more reasonable […]

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How to Use a Sinking Fund to Stay on Budget and Target Your Savings

A sinking fund makes it easier to manage big expenses. We break down how this saving strategy can keep you from going over budget.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.

Stock Market Today: Powell Reins in Rate-Hike Prospects, Sets Stocks Loose

After more than a week of international affairs monopolizing Wall Street’s spotlight, attention shifted back to interest rates as Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell telegraphed the answer to one of investors’ most pressing questions – and lit a fire under stocks.

In prepared testimony to the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Powell said he’s “inclined to support a 25-basis-point rate hike” at the next Federal Open Market Committee meeting, set for March 15-16.

  • SEE MORE The 22 Best Stocks to Buy for 2022

While Powell provided plenty of hedging language – saying the economic implications of Russia’s invasion were “highly uncertain” and leaving the door open to a 50-basis-point increase in the Fed funds rate later in 2022 if rapid inflation persists – his comments largely shut down worries about a 50-basis-point hike in March that had contributed to recent equity selling.

“I think we should assume one hike at every meeting this year, or seven total,” says Kiplinger Economist David Payne. That adds up to the same total increase of 1.75 points previously forecast, but with slightly different timing.

“With inflation at a multi-decade high, the Fed is anxious to get off of a crisis footing,” adds Bill Adams, chief economist for Comerica Bank. “The Fed will try to cool demand enough to get inflation under control, but not choke off the recovery.”

Investors also cheered a better-than-expected private-sector employer report, with ADP announcing that payrolls increased by 475,000 in February, easily topping estimates for 375,000 – and more shockingly, that January’s 301,000 payroll losses were revised to 509,000 additions.

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Peter Essele, head of portfolio management for Commonwealth Financial Network, noted that February’s release showed small businesses (1-49 employees) experienced their first decline in jobs since April 2020, while large businesses (500+ employees) showed their third largest monthly job gain in 10 years.

“The dynamic in February is the extension of a trend that began in August 2021, where large business employment began to outpace small and medium business hiring in the recovery,” he says. “The trend may reflect changing preferences in the labor force, with workers pivoting toward larger-scale businesses that potentially offer more benefits and higher wages.”

  • SEE MORE Hedge Funds’ 25 Top Blue-Chip Stocks to Buy Now

Ninety-two percent of the S&P 500’s components, and every one of its 11 sectors, finished in the green, pushing the index 1.9% higher to 4,386. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (+1.8% to 33,891) and Nasdaq Composite (+1.6% to 13,752) also closed well in positive territory.

YCharts

Other news in the stock market today:

  • The small-cap Russell 2000 had itself another solid day, up 2.5% to 2,058 to post its fourth gain in five sessions.
  • A weekly decline in domestic crude inventories and reports that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) will continue to gradually increase output sent U.S. crude oil futures spiking nearly 7% to $110.60 per barrel – their highest settlement since May 2011. “I would expect the run higher in oil prices to continue through the course of 2022,” says David Keller, chief market strategist at StockCharts.com, though he adds that “many energy names appear overextended and due for at least a brief pullback before resuming their uptrends.”
  • Gold futures fell 1.1% to settle at $1,922.30 an ounce.
  • Bitcoin slipped 1.0% to $43,826.77. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m.)
  • Nordstrom (JWN) stock shot up 37.8% after the department store reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.23 per share on $4.5 billion in revenue – beating analysts’ estimates for earnings of $1.02 per share on $4.4 billion in sales. The company also noted improving sequential sales in its off-price division, Nordstrom Rack, and gave higher-than-expected guidance for fiscal 2022. Still, CFRA Research analyst Zachary Warring maintained a Strong Sell rating on the retail stock. “We do not believe JWN can achieve numbers anywhere near their guidance for fiscal 2022 after earnings per share of just $1.10 in fiscal 2021 after massive government stimulus and unprecedented pent-up demand. We would steer clear of shares that trade at 8.0x JWN’s earnings-per-share guidance for fiscal 2023.”
  • Salesforce.com (CRM, +0.7%) reported solid fourth-quarter results Tuesday night, bringing in adjusted earnings of 84 cents per share on $7.3 billion in revenue. This exceeded analysts’ estimates for 75 cents per share and $7.2 billion, respectively. CRM also guided for higher-than-expected revenue in both the current quarter and the full fiscal year and expects to see $1.5 billion in sales from Slack in fiscal 2023. “Given how deep its relationships are with its customers, Salesforce will continue to do well in the current financial environment,” says Chris Rothstein, CEO and founder of Groove, the leading sales engagement platform for enterprises using Salesforce. “As economic uncertainty and inflation continue to drive down multiples for tech companies around the world, Salesforce is uniquely positioned to be able to take advantage of the situation.”

Buying and Holding? Consider These 7 Funds

We’ve mostly spent the past few weeks exploring ways to either defend yourself from recent volatility or take advantage of the market’s bobbing and weaving.

  • SEE MORE 7 Energy ETFs for Rising Oil & Gas Prices

But for many buy-and-holders, the name of the game during times of tumult is … well, business as usual: Hold on to what you believe in, sell what you don’t, buy when opportunity (and value) strikes.

One aspect of maintaining this kind of a portfolio is ensuring you have a solid portfolio core of diversified exposure to the market’s basic flavors. We’ve long touted our Kiplinger 25 mutual funds and Kip ETF 20 to get the job done, but investors with fund-provider loyalty can often find all the tools they need within the very same family. Take American Funds parent Capital Group, which recently made a splash in the ETF world with six actively managed core-portfolio offerings.

However, buy-and-holders also may want to add “satellite” holdings – smaller positions meant to generate outperformance, and again, some fund families have a wealth of options available.

State Street Global Advisors, for instance, is one of the top ETF providers in the game via its SPDR family of funds, with nearly 140 ETFs available in the U.S. alone. We’ve winnowed down its wide selection down to seven SPDR ETFs that are ideally suited for buy-and-hold portfolios.

  • SEE MORE The 22 Best ETFs to Buy for a Prosperous 2022