What are your priorities?  Perhaps a more important questions is: how many priorities do you have?  Jim Collins argues that having more than three priorities means you do not have any.

I would take Mr. Collins’ wisdom one step further – let’s set one priority.  Why?  One priority feeds our mission statement and provides an overarching target for the entire team to shoot on.

I call this the “umbrella priority.”  An umbrella priority covers everything your team does and boils it down into one easy to understand concept.

For example: if you are responsible for running an organization that is required to be combat trained and ready to deploy at moments notice, your priority should be “readiness.”  Readiness as an “umbrella priority” covers items such as maintenance and training.  Both of which are essential to being combat ready.

The hard part is narrowing your priorities down into a priority.  To do so, ask yourself this question: “At the end of the day, what do I have to do?”  That is your priority.