Do your calendar and priorities match?

Mark at Manager Tools writes about an exercise he has all of his executive coaching clients do before he begins working with them:  He asks them to list their priorities and then looks at their calendars.  The result?

90% of the time they don’t match.

When I review with my clients what they said their priorities were, versus what their calendars proved they actually were, the primary emotion, once we fight through disbelief and dissembling, is embarrassment. The smart ones get something powerful from this: the disparity between what they know their jobs to be and what they spend their time doing is the primary source of their dissatisfaction in their role.

Such a simple, yet profound exercise.  Try it yourself and see if your calendar and priorites match?

Thanks to Lisa for the tip.