One of the most common struggles I see among CEOs is the temptation to treat everything as important. The business has dozens of pressing issues: sales, operations, hiring, customers, investors, and it feels natural to want to advance them all at once. But here’s the hard truth: if everything is important, then nothing is.
The leaders who make the biggest impact are the ones who set clear, courageous priorities. Not just a long list of good intentions, but a sharp focus on what matters most right now, paired with the discipline to say, “this other thing is not our focus.” That clarity is what gives teams confidence, energy, and alignment.
In the Scaling Up framework, we recommend no more than 3–5 priorities per quarter. Less is more. Why? Because multitasking is a myth. What feels like managing multiple priorities is really just attention-hopping, which slows execution and dilutes results. By narrowing focus, CEOs give their teams the chance to deliver real progress.
A good test is this: if you walked into your company today and asked 10 employees, “What’s the #1 thing we must accomplish this quarter?” – would you get the same answer? If not, your priorities aren’t yet clear enough.
And here’s the rub: setting priorities isn’t just about discipline – it’s about courage. It takes courage to say no to worthy projects. Courage to resist pressure from stakeholders who want their issue at the top of the list. Courage to stand in front of your team and make the hard call about where resources will go, and where they won’t.
When leaders summon that courage, the payoff is immense. Priorities stop being words on a page and start becoming a source of clarity that drives execution, accelerates growth, and builds a culture where people know exactly where they’re going and why.