Juggling

#Beingaleader means you have to juggle. A lot. Whether you are a parent, a coach, or a CEO, you have a lot to juggle. At one time. With competing priorities and timelines. Pressures from many different corners whether your boss, a project deadline or a screaming infant. Everyone thinks their stuff is the most important for you to be handling right now.

Some commentators ask you to focus on a specific task and then move from task to task based upon their particular priority. Their argument is that you can’t efficiently multi-task. To me that sounds good in theory. Sometimes, however, that is not practical. This can happen if someone above you is pushing for something even if it’s not your highest priority. It might be a screaming child who thinks that your attention is required right now.

Sometimes it’s strategic. What I mean is, sometimes you have a lower priority task, that if you will just do your step in the process, others will be able to get back to work. To keep moving the project forward. While it might not be your highest priority at the moment, from a macro level it must be done in order to keep as many people working as possible so that the overall goal or project can meet its objectives and timelines.

#Beingaleader means you have to be flexible in order to juggle your various priorities, stakeholders and time lines. I do not think that juggling expertise is necessarily inborn. It can be learned. Experience comes from getting experience. Expertise comes from learning from failed experiences and applying it prospectively.

You might not have known you had joined the circus. #Beingaleader means you are a juggler.