I’ve learned over the years how important it is to understand sequencing — not just what needs to get done, but the order in which it needs to happen so I don’t bottleneck someone else. Not everyone recognizes the importance of this.
If you’re working on a large project, you can’t just focus on the immediate task in front of you. You have to understand the dependencies. You have to know who needs what, and when, in order for the whole thing to move forward.
I often think about the people around me and whether I’m getting the optimal utilization out of them. But to do that, I have to understand the flow of work. So I’ll zoom all the way out, look at the whole system, and ask: What’s the one thing I need to do right now that will release someone else to keep moving?
That might mean doing something mundane, something quick, something that feels small — but if it unlocks five hours or ten hours of productivity for someone on my team, that five minutes becomes one of the best investments I can make.
I’ve had moments where someone said, “I didn’t do X because you didn’t send me Y.” And Y takes me five minutes. Five minutes that bottlenecked the entire process because I didn’t pause long enough to do the thing that allowed them to do their thing.
This is leadership. This is partnership. This is business. Understanding sequencing is both art and science — knowing how to keep your team moving while you stay laser-focused on what you need to do.
I’m grateful for the eyes to see the order of things.