Once you make that step up to being the frontline leader for your team, one of the challenges you will face is trying to fix everything at once. However, what you will truly need to do is learn the art of mastering prioritization.
I remember the moment I became a frontline leader. I had a long list of improvements I had been thinking of for years, and I was just waiting for the day that I was ever put in charge.
Sound familiar?
In reality, trying to tackle everything at once can lead to poor implementation, which can cause burnout and frustration for you and your team. Knowing which high-value-adding, quick-to-implement ideas can create real impact will be vital in making you successful and helping you master prioritization as a new leader.
The Pitfall of Overloading Yourself with Ideas
The moment you step into leadership, you’ll see opportunities for improvement everywhere. There’s pressure to act immediately, to prove yourself, and to make your mark. But trying to fix everything at once can spread you too thin. When you take on too much, you risk not following through, which can frustrate your team and erode trust. Worse, you run the risk of burning yourself out before you even hit your stride.
This is why mastering prioritization matters.
It is easy to fall into this trap. Hopefully, these concepts will give you the tools to implement sustainable, lasting change for your teams.
Understand Your Bandwidth
Before diving into changes, take a step back and assess your time, energy, and resources. One thing I learned when jumping into the new role is that the first few weeks can feel like your required duties allow for plenty of room to take on an extra workload. This will enable you to feel like you have the time necessary to implement all of your desired changes.
My advice is for you to send the first few months asking yourself these questions before jumping head-first into change implementation to aid in your prioritization:
- How much time can I realistically dedicate to improvements while managing my daily responsibilities?
- What are my team’s current workload and capacity?
- Which improvements will yield the highest returns with minimal effort?
- Are there any new initiatives being rolled out that may increase your or your team’s workloads?
It’s essential to understand the bandwidth you have before making a decision on which improvements you want to implement.
Another vital skill that ties into this concept, is to develop is the ability to tell others “no” or that you can’t take on more workload, especially if the new work does not provide the same level of value that your chosen improvement will add.
Find Quick Wins
One of the smartest moves you can make as a new leader is focusing on quick wins. These minor, high-impact improvements are easy to implement and immediately make a difference. They help build momentum, boost morale, and establish your credibility. The prioritization of these should be high on your list.
For example:
- Improving communication by setting up a daily check-in meeting.
- Simplifying a process that slows down workflow.
- Addressing a typical team frustration with a simple fix.
- Creating morale improvement opportunities.
The quickest win for me, which I saw and still see amazing benefits from, was allowing my team to cook team lunches on Thursdays. While this lunch typically lasts longer than their preset lunchtime, the value added from the morale boost and team bonding outweighs the slight hit to productivity by magnitudes.
This program has even evolved into an opportunity for us to improve our safety efforts as a team. We have implemented a program where, throughout the month, the team fills out cards that highlight someone else on the team going above and beyond with safety-conscious actions. As a team, we then select the best one of the month. That person then selects what lunch I purchase on behalf of the company for one of the Thursday lunches.
As this shows, prioritization of quick wins works. You do not have to start with large improvement projects to start seeing successful changes in your team. Small changes, if done correctly, can have large impacts on your team. Find that improvement, no matter how small, and start your team’s change journey the right way.
“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together”
– Vincent Van Gogh
Prioritization of Value, Not Volume
When deciding which improvement ideas to pursue, don’t just go after the sheer number of changes; focus on the ones that will have the most significant impact. Ask yourself:
- Does this align with our team’s goals?
- Does it solve an urgent or recurring problem?
- Can it be implemented quickly with minimal disruption?
The key here is creating a “must-do” list and a “nice-to-do” list. You should not touch your “nice-to-do” list until the “must-do” is completed. Now I will caveat that statement by saying that if there is something on the “nice-to-do” list that has an implementation opportunity poop up, and you have the bandwidth to implement it, then, of course, do it successfully.
One of these opportunities pooped up more me in my journey of change implementation. My management gave me a new priority: reworking our calibration procedure to better comply with ISO 9001 certification standards. While doing this, I seized this opportunity to implement a new instrumentation calibration sheet that was on my “nice-to-do” list because I could put half the effort it would have taken to implant as a stand-alone item by working it into the procedure update I was already undertaking. This allowed for the implementation of this change idea to have a more significant impact than it initially did, hence why it moved up the priority list.
Focus on the Low-Hanging Fruit First
Piggybacking on finding quick wins and high-value improvement ideas is the concept of finding the low-hanging fruit and raise them on your prioritization list. Low-hanging fruit are those easy, low-effort changes and these can be game changers. Sometimes, minor adjustments can lead to significant improvements.
For example:
- Reorganizing a workspace for better efficiency.
- Eliminating redundant reports or meetings.
- Updating a communication process.
These small wins add up, giving you and your team the confidence to take on bigger challenges over time. In today’s world, a lot of focus has been placed on eliminating unnecessary meetings. However, even with this increased focus, you may still have an opportunity for improvement.
I had a team member suggest to me that the two craft leads could handle our daily rundowns, which currently involve the entire team. This would allow the rest of the team to gain added time to be productive while still maintaining the productivity of the rundown. This idea has worked wonders for our team.
Delegate and Get Buy-In
If you only take one thing away from this post, let it be this:
You don’t have to do everything yourself.
Many new leaders, if not all, fall into the trap of thinking that their success is measured by how much they personally accomplish. The truth of the matter is that your success is defined by how well your team performs, and that means learning to delegate effectively.
Delegation isn’t about assigning your task to others just to lighten your workload. It’s about strategically identifying the right people for the right responsibilities. Look for team members with the skills, interest, or passion to take on improvement initiatives. When you align people’s strengths with growth opportunities, they become more engaged and invested in their work. Oftentimes, they will even return a higher-value product than you could have done alone.
But delegation alone isn’t enough you need buy-in from your team. Simply assigning tasks without context can make people feel burdened rather than empowered. To avoid this, you should involve them in the decision-making process. Explain the “why” behind the changes, show them how their contributions matter, and give them room to make decisions. This helps them with a sense of inclusion and ownership.
Empowering your team to take on small projects creates accountability and leadership development within your group. It builds confidence, encourages problem-solving, and creates a culture where people step up rather than wait for direction. Over time, this strengthens your team as a whole and prepares future leaders to rise within the organization.
More importantly, effective delegation will allow you to shift your focus to higher-value tasks. Instead of getting slowed down by lower-value-added improvements, you can think strategically, focus on the more meaningful improvements, and support your team’s long-term success.
Review and Reiterate
Once you start implementing changes, take time to assess the results.
Ask yourself:
- Did the change have the intended impact?
- What feedback are you receiving from your team?
- Are there ways to improve upon the initial implementation?
- Can the improvement be maintained?
Leadership is an ongoing process of learning and adapting. Progress happens through continuous improvement. If you implement an improvement and do not follow up, there is a chance that it will not have the desired impact and will not be maintained by your team. That’s why it is important to continually have touchpoints to understand the results of the implemented improvement.
I know that to many people, this step can seem to be obvious and easy to complete. However, when the prioritization list keeps changing and workloads evolve often, you can find that this step can easily be pushed to the wayside.
Trust me, I am speaking from experience. One day, you look up, and an improvement you started with your team got dropped somewhere along the way. This doesn’t have to happen by ill intent from your team. New procedures, checklists, or protocols can easily be forgotten if they have not had time to be habitual yet. They simply forget the fast-paced work environments today.
That’s why it is key, as the team leader, that you keep these new improvements on the forefront of the team’s mind until they become habits.
Prepare for Resistance
As you begin to implement these changes and improvements, it is important to remember that change, no matter how small, can often be met with resistance. Its natural. People are creatures of habit, and anytime you ask someone to adjust to something new, there’s a level of discomfort involved. Don’t be surprised if your team doesn’t immediately jump on board with every improvement you introduce. This is especially true if you’re making shifts in processes, workflows, or expectations.
The key to navigating this resistance is to understand that it is not personal. People resistance change for a whole host of reasons. As leaders, it is our roles to acknowledge, understand, and address our teams concerns around change.
A few ways to prepare for this inevitable resistance is:
- Explaining why the change is important.
- Highlighting how the change will benefit your team.
- Anticipating your teams concerns and being prepared with solutions.
- Being patient and staying calm.
Wrapping up
As a new leader, it’s easy to feel like you need to change everything immediately. But trying to tackle too much at once can lead to frustration and exhaustion. Instead, focus on high-value, quick-to-implement improvements and put these items high on your prioritization list. Build momentum with small wins, prioritize strategically, and get your team involved in the process.
Leadership is a journey, take it one step at a time. Remember that progress, not perfection, is the goal. Small changes in the right direction today, while they may not be noticeable without really paying attention, these changes can show a massive improvement if you expand several years from now, and all these changes have had time to add up.
Call to Action
What’s one quick win you can implement today to make a meaningful difference for your team? Share your ideas in the comments: I’d love to hear how you’re navigating your leadership journey!
