Everything is a priority. How do I deal with this?

Leif Babin

We get various forms of this question, "Everything is a priority. How do I deal with this?" Or, "Everything is changing all the time." And when we hear that from leaders, we kind of have to laugh because, guess what? Can you show me some area of life or business or anywhere in the world where things don't actually change, where things aren't changing?

So priorities are always changing. You got to be flexible, number one, realize there's nowhere else, there's no other industry out there, there's no other company out there where you don't have shifting priorities. That's just the reality of the world that we lived in. The battlefield is no different and we had to constantly change different priorities.

But if you try to take on those 30 priorities at the same time, even if the boss is saying they're all a priority... How do you deal with that? ... you're going to fail. So you have to prioritize and execute. And if you can't get the boss to prioritize the list for you, then you got to take a step back and prioritize it for yourself.

Jocko Willink

Yeah. If you approach your boss and you say, "Hey boss, we got 15 different projects that we're working on right now and I don't have the resources to make that happen. Which one of these is the priority you want me to focus on?" The boss says, "Nope, they're all a priority." What you still have to do is you have to prioritize yourself. So take a step back, look at where you think the biggest return on investment is going to come from and you start focusing on that.

Now, you might want to approach your boss again and say, "Hey, listen boss, I know that all these are a priority and I just wanted to let you know, in order for me to direct my resources properly, I actually had to figure out where I was going to focus. Here's what I decided to focus on. I just wanted to make sure that this makes sense to you. I know they're all important, but here's the order of importance that I'm going to approach these various projects with." And there's a good chance that your boss says, "Yeah, okay, if that's what you got to do with your resources, that makes sense." The boss might also say, "Well, you know what? Well, this one's a little bit more important so focus on that one first." Great. So now you just got your boss to give you their priorities.

And worst case scenario, if your boss just says, "Nope, I want you doing all of these simultaneously right now. Spread your resources thin so that you can't make very much progress on any of these, but that's what I want you to do." You say, 'Aye, aye, Boss. Got it. I'll move forward." And then you go back, get with your team, figure out where you want to focus your resources and start to get these things done by priority, because spreading your resources thin isn't going to help you, you're not going to get anything done and then you're going to be a real failure. And you're actually letting your boss down. By following what your boss is telling you to do, you're going to let him down because you're not going to be able to get anything done. So figure out what the priorities are and then, yeah, go execute.