The 'Competing Priorities' Trap: Why Important Work Never Gets Done

A simple calendar exercise that reveals what we're really avoiding

I have a coaching client who is struggling to get to the next level. To me, the reason is clear as day, but she couldn't see it herself.

Let's call her June to protect her identity. June is very motivated to get promoted. We've identified two areas where she needs to grow. In Amazon terms, we would label them "Dive Deep" and "Think Big." Essentially, she's gotten away from the nitty-gritty details of what's going on with her team, and she needs to think bigger about what she, her team, and the organization can accomplish in the future.

We identified some tasks that would help her get there. I asked her to look at her team's code reviews and pull requests, and to read all the design documents she could get her hands on. The idea was for her to write documentation explaining things she didn't understand before. This would serve as a tangible artifact o…