When I first began work as a Management Consultant, I approached my boss on a Monday morning for some help in preparing a Management Program on “Change”.
He said to me, “Jon, I’d love to help, how does Thursday afternoon at 4.30pm sound?” I was hoping to see him immediately because I was delivering the program on the following Monday. He said to me “I really can’t afford any time before then, as I have some high priority work to finish and I’d be jeopardising that if I saw you now. Why don’t you get started on it now and talk to others if you’re stuck. I’ll help you consolidate it on Thursday.”
My boss had to be ruthless to achieve his work goals. In a very polite way, he had said no to my priorities, knowing full well that if he said yes, it would be at the expense of his other core work.
Priorities are all about trade-offs!
– Source: The Little Book of Golden Rules, Hill of Content Publishing 2000, Jon Morgan