Roy Osing is a former executive vice-president of Telus, blogger, educator, coach, adviser and the author of the book series, Be Different or Be Dead.
New technologies, more suppliers, a proliferation of innovative products and services, additional social media capabilities and business tools: New opportunities to improve organizational bottom-line performance are constantly raining down on leaders, making it a challenge to decide which to seriously consider and which to just let slide by.
Here are four skills that standout leaders use to successfully deal with the seemingly unlimited number of potentially amazing things that come their way.
They have a game plan for their business
The strategy for their organization represents the context for evaluating the potential new opportunities that come along. The strategic game plan is the touchstone used to determine which new options should be considered.
For example, a new digital technology would make sense to consider only if it is a better fit for achieving planned revenue growth targets more effectively than the technology currently used.
They avoid "the chase"
It's easy to get caught up exploring every new idea that people propose. And the chase never ends, because there is always something new being delivered to the market.
It's not about what cool things the new stuff can do. It is about how the new stuff fits the organization's strategy and how it can better enable execution.
Let the dogs chase the cars. A leader thoughtfully sifts through "the new" possibilities and applies resources to only those that have a tight strategic fit.
They set priorities for evaluating the new
New idea evaluation will disrupt the focus on execution, so care must be taken to not waste precious time and effort.
Effective leaders pick no more than three new possibilities, rank them in order of positive potential impact and have a go at No. 1.
And they decide what they are going to give up or put on hold if they take on something new. "Piling on" new work on top of existing work is a drag that will prevent other objectives and goals from being achieved.
They put the stopwatch on new evaluations
If no criteria is established regarding when to stop evaluating a new idea, the process could go on and on and on. I call it "creeping incrementalism," and it can prevent a decision from ever being made.
The goal is to make quick assessments, so the integration and execution can immediately follow and results can be delivered. People on the endless chase with no stopwatch disappear into an endless cycle of the new and never get out of it.
New stuff coming over the transom is potentially dangerous. It can take your eye off the ball and distract you from executing your current strategy. It can gobble up your precious resources of time and money, so be disciplined in how you handle it.
You don't have to chase everything that comes your way like many do. It's okay to pass up new sexy stuff that isn't a fit for your organization.
Executives, educators and human resources experts contribute to the ongoing Leadership Lab series.