Your DMO Can't Treat Everything Like a Priority

 

One lesson I learned over years of leading a destination marketing organization (DMO) is that a CEO manages more than people, budgets, programs, and politics. You also manage something much easier to overlook: organizational attention. And there is never enough of it.

DMOs operate in an environment where almost everything arrives wearing an “urgent” label. A community partner wants help promoting an event. A board member has an idea. A hotel needs something. The city calls. Someone discovers a new marketing opportunity. A sponsorship request, a meeting invitation, a social media issue, a research project, a new technology everyone says we need to investigate. Individually, many of these things are worthwhile. Collectively, they can paralyze an organization.

I came to understand that one of my responsibilities as CEO was protecting the staff from unnecessary distraction. That didn't mean insulating them from the community or refusing to consider new ideas. It meant recognizing that every time we asked someone to stop what they were doing and chase the latest opportunity, we were making a decision about what wouldn't get their attention.

That's the hidden cost of priority overload.

We sometimes confuse activity with progress. A staff can be incredibly busy, meetings all day, emails answered, reports prepared, social posts published, requests fulfilled, and still make very little progress on the handful of things capable of changing the destination. That's why I believe DMO leaders have to continually distinguish between what is urgent and what is important. Urgent things demand our attention. Important things deserve it. There's a difference.

The strategic plan should help provide that filter. If increasing overnight visitation is a major objective, then we should be asking whether the things consuming our time contribute to that goal. If we're working to strengthen the destination's brand, improve visitor experiences, grow meetings business, or build community support for tourism, those priorities ought to be visible in how the organization spends its time, not simply in a document presented at a board retreat.

That also means learning to say, “Not now.” Sometimes that's harder than saying no. A good idea doesn't become a bad idea simply because we don't pursue it immediately. It may simply mean there are three other things that matter more right now. Leadership requires making those distinctions.

I think CEOs sometimes believe their job is to keep adding things to the organization's plate. New initiatives feel like progress. New partnerships feel productive. New programs create excitement. But sometimes the most valuable thing a CEO can do is remove something from the plate.

Cancel the meeting that no longer accomplishes anything. Stop producing the report nobody reads. Question the program we've continued simply because we've always done it. Protect a talented employee from being pulled in five different directions. Then give your organization permission to concentrate. Because when everything is a priority, nothing really is. 

A successful DMO doesn't have to do everything. It has to know what matters most and have the discipline to keep its attention there.