How to Set Priorities as a Leader

Every task that comes to me is urgent and important. Sound familiar? This is a challenge many of us face daily. Early in my career, prioritization was relatively straightforward—my manager told me what to focus on. But as I grew, the game changed. Suddenly, I was managing a flood of requests, far more than I could handle, and the signals from others weren’t helpful. Everything was “important.” Everything was “urgent.” Often, it was both. To handle this effectively, I realized I needed to develop an internal prioritization compass. It wasn’t easy, but it was transformative. Here are 6 strategies to help you build your own: 1/ Be crystal clear on key goals Start by understanding your organization’s goals—at the company, department, and team levels. Attend organizational forums, departmental reviews, or leadership updates to stay informed. When in doubt, use your 1:1s with leaders to ask: What does success look like? 2/ Deeply understand KPIs Metrics guide decision-making, but not all metrics are equally valuable. Take the time to understand your team's or function's key performance indicators (KPIs). Know what they measure, what they mean, and how to assess their impact. 3/ Be assertive to protect priorities Not every task deserves your attention. Practice saying “no” or deferring requests that don’t align with key goals or metrics. Assertiveness is not about being inflexible—it’s about protecting your capacity to focus on what truly matters. 4/ Set and reset expectations Priorities change, and that’s okay. What’s not okay is working on misaligned tasks. Keep open communication with your manager and stakeholders about evolving priorities. When new demands arise, clarify and reset expectations. 5/ Use 1:1s to align with your manager Leverage your 1:1s as a strategic tool. Share your current priorities, validate them against your manager’s expectations, and discuss any conflicts or challenges. 6/ Clarify the escalation process When priorities conflict, don’t let disagreements linger. If you can’t agree quickly, escalate the issue to your manager. This avoids unnecessary churn, ensures trust remains intact, and keeps momentum focused on results. PS: You won’t always get it right—and that’s okay. Treat each misstep as an opportunity to refine your compass. What’s one tip you’ve used to prioritize when everything feels urgent? --- Follow me, tap the (🔔) Omar Halabieh for daily Leadership and Career posts.

As CPO, I went where my calendar dictated. Then I’m sneaking glances at my email and Slack, and growing more stressed at more work accruing elsewhere. I was reactive. Each meeting spawned more follow-up meetings because I wasn't well prepared, or the right people were not present. To truly spend most of my time on my top priorities: 1️⃣ Make a top-down view of time spent that reflects your P0/P1’s. What initiatives, decisions, or strategies are they responsible for driving? 2️⃣ Divide your list into three sections: P0’s (only I can do), P1 (critical priorities that I cannot miss), and P2 (important to get done). 3️⃣ Assign a percentage of your time to each section: If your time spent reflects your priorities, this is what it should look like in aggregate. 4️⃣ Ruthlessly clean your next month of meetings. Delegate where you are not critical. Combine similar conversations. Shorten or reduce meeting frequency. Delete…and ask for forgiveness — because you’ll end up asking for it anyway on the day when you are triple-booked. Remember, if you are struggling with time management, the first step is not to open your calendar to ad hoc edit, but to map out your true priorities to set a strong foundation for your adjustments. 

Leaders: Not Everything Is an Emergency One of the biggest pitfalls in leadership that I see are VPs and directors treating every task like it’s urgent.  When everything becomes urgent ASAP today, teams experience burnout, confusion and end up spinning their wheels because this constant scrambling drives poor decision making (done being better than perfect) as well as an inability to plan because the team is always reacting. The reality is that not everything can be, or should be, urgent. Labeling every task as “urgent” doesn’t just lead to stress.... it also causes people (leaders included) to lose sight of what really drives results.  Here’s a better approach to ensuring team alignment and prioritization on what matters most: Distinguish Between Urgent and Important: Urgent tasks often have a clear, immediate deadline tied to an external factor....a client deliverable is due tomorrow OR a last-minute market shift requires immediate action. Important tasks, on the other hand, are those that advance long-term goals and priorities, like improving a sales process or strategizing for entering a new market.  Before marking something as “urgent” ask yourself: Does this task align with a short-term deadline or is it more valuable to allow time for depth and quality? Empower Prioritization: Leaders who communicate true priorities create a culture of clarity and purpose.  For example, if the primary goal for Q4 is closing deals, a leader should direct the team to prioritize sales outreach over lower-impact tasks like preparing detailed internal reports.  This teaches the team to recognize what’s core to success, what drives the mission forward and how to distinguish valuable tasks from those that are less critical. Give your Team Realistic Deadlines: A team that feels constantly rushed won’t feel supported; they’ll feel pressured. Give people room to do their best work and they will bring you better solutions, fresh perspectives and lasting results.   When teams feel trusted to meet realistic goals, they deliver work that is not only on time but also impactful.  Encourage an open dialogue around deadlines so the team members feel comfortable seeking clarification or asking for additional time, when needed. A true leader knows urgency has its place, but so does strategic patience. When you create a culture where priorities are clear and urgency is meaningful, you encourage your team to stay focused, motivated and committed to high-impact work. Next time you feel the need to sound the “urgency” bells..... ask if Is it time-sensitive or do I need my team to be focused on their top tasks with no interruption for the best results?  That will let you know if immediate action is needed or if the team can create more impact with thoughtful planning and execution. PS -> What tips do you have to prioritize a team's task list and ensure the right things get done to move the business forward? Drop your recs in the comments below

Change is constant.  Change is inevitable. Time, however, is fixed.   No matter your title, ambition, or workload, you still get 24 hours a day.   The leaders who consistently deliver results and drive meaningful impact aren’t doing more with their time.  They’re doing what matters most—deliberately.   Time isn’t just a resource. It’s life. And it defines leadership. Over the years, I’ve learned this the hard way. And one thing I’ve become exceptionally disciplined at as a people manager and leader is time management. Here are 6 core time decisions, drawn from my experience, that you can implement to manage your time more wisely—so you too can lead with clarity, deliver impact, and still protect your energy: 1️�� Treat time as a strategic asset You can earn more money.  You can’t earn more time. Make decisions as if every minute matters—because it does.  Use deadlines as focus tools, act with urgency, and avoid stretching unnecessarily. 2️⃣ Determine what truly deserves a “yes” Every “yes” is a trade-off. Say yes to everything, and you’re quietly saying “no” to your priorities. Be radically clear on your goals and identify 4–5 true priorities—and say no to the noise with intention, not guilt. Clarity creates focus. Focus creates impact.   3️⃣ Design the week before it starts Don’t let the calendar happen to you—shape it. Plan your week on Sunday evening or Monday morning. Protect time for what matters most and leave margin for the unexpected. Leadership without planning is reaction—not intention. 4️⃣ Triage ruthlessly instead of reacting Not everything or everyone deserves attention. Ask yourself: • Is this urgent and important? → Do it now • Important but not urgent? → Schedule it • Urgent but not important? → Delegate it • Neither? → Eliminate it immediately Discernment is a leadership advantage. 5️⃣ Protect deep work and focus Start each day with your most important “rock”. This is the work that actually moves your career or business forward. Protect 2–3 focused hours, eliminate distractions, and guard your attention aggressively. Focus isn’t a preference—it’s a strategic asset. And these hours compound more than you realize.    6️⃣ Reduce decision fatigue with smart systems Don’t waste energy constantly choosing. Use repeatable systems—intentional agendas, lists, routines, defaults—to preserve mental bandwidth for high-impact decisions. Energy is finite. Design accordingly. If you forget everything else, remember these non-negotiables:  ✔️ Start the day by writing down your top 3 priorities ✔️ End the day by reviewing where your time really went—and what drove results vs. drained energy ✔️ Revisit your goals monthly to ensure alignment—not drift Because at the end of the day, your life is what you repeatedly make time for. What’s one time-management habit that’s made the most significant difference for you?

We all know the temptation of setting too many goals at once. On paper, it feels productive as a burst of ambition or an eagerness to do everything. But in practice, it almost always leads to frustration. Instead of steady progress, we scatter our energy across competing priorities, and nothing moves forward in the way we hoped. So how do we decide what really deserves our focus? The first step is to make sure our goals align with the bigger picture. If you’re part of an organization, that means asking your boss what they view as your most important contribution this year. Not only does it ensure your efforts are relevant, but it also helps you build political capital by showing you’re invested in what matters to them. And if you’re the leader, the responsibility shifts: you need to work backwards from your company’s long-term vision. If you know where you want the business to be in three years, the goals you set today should act as stepping stones toward that future. Once you’ve identified what’s strategically important, sequencing becomes essential. Think of it as a “goal timeline.” Years back, I knew I wanted to create my own online courses. But I realized I couldn’t start there. I didn’t yet have the right skills, the right audience, or even clarity on what people wanted to learn from me. So instead, I spent three years building those foundations: learning the process by creating courses for others, growing my email list, and piloting ideas. Only then did I launch my first course. That patience and sequencing made all the difference. It also helps to identify a “keystone goal.” A goal that makes other ambitions easier to achieve. For me, writing for high-profile publications not only supported my consulting business, it also opened doors for speaking engagements and book sales. By focusing on one keystone, multiple other goals fell into place. And finally, once you’ve chosen your focus, you have to stick with it. I often see clients second-guess themselves because they notice peers succeeding with completely different strategies. It’s easy to get distracted. The antidote is what I call “willful myopia”: committing to a goal for at least six months. That consistency gives your work the runway it needs to bear fruit. The truth is, in our culture, there’s always pressure to do more, and to do it faster. But lasting success often comes from doing less, with greater intention. By carefully choosing the right goal and giving it the focus it deserves, you create the conditions for meaningful, long-term results.

The most powerful prioritization tool isn’t on your Kanban board. It’s not MoSCoW, RICE, or a shiny prioritization matrix. It’s your brain. And most PMs are not trained to use it. I learned this the hard way. In my early days, every request was “high priority.” Every fire seemed worth burning out for. Until I realized: Prioritization isn’t just a framework. It’s a mindset. It starts with 4 core thinking skills: 1. Critical Thinking • Test assumptions, don’t just accept them • Ask “Why?” three times before calling it urgent • Spot the bias hiding behind requirements 2. Systemic Thinking • Map the domino effect of cross-team decisions • See the hidden dependencies • Turn complexity into clarity 3. Decision-Making • Navigate trade-offs with confidence • Make calls when the data is fuzzy • Know when “good enough” is the best choice 4. Empathy • Read between the lines of stakeholder requests • Hear the fear behind the pushback • Build trust through better listening Frameworks are tools. But you are the system. If you master these mental muscles, any prioritization method will work better because you’ll be thinking like a leader, not just a task manager. You don’t need more templates. You need to train your mind. → Repost ♺ to help PMs lead with clarity, and follow Jesus Romero for more leadership insights.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘀 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁) Many C-level executives I meet are drowning in the wrong priorities. You get promoted. Congratulations! But suddenly you're facing ⚡ 47 "urgent" decisions, ⚡ 23 "strategic" projects, ⚡ and everyone needs your time "just for 10 minutes." 😱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺? You're still thinking like your old job. I saw this when a colleague got promoted to VP. • Brilliant leader. • But six months in, she was working 70-hour weeks and her team was frustrated. • Revenue was flat.    She asked me for help. The issue wasn't her capability. It was her priority filter: • She was still solving individual problems (like her old role) instead of building systems that prevented those problems. • She was in the weeds of processes instead of asking 𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑤𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑐𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑠? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: We created a simple 𝟯𝘅𝟯 𝗣𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗿𝗶𝘅. Nine boxes that helped her see the "big picture" on one page for the first time since her promotion. On one axis: Self → Team → Organisation On the other: Operations → Process → Strategy 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁? Within 90 days: • Her working hours dropped to 50 per week • Team engagement scores jumped 23% • Revenue grew 12% that quarter • Most importantly: she stopped firefighting and started to focus on preventing fires 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘀𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱: ✅ 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺-𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 (Organisation + Strategy). If you're not clear on where the business is going, everything else is just busy work. ✅ 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀. The skills that got you promoted might be exactly what's holding you back now. ✅ 𝗔𝘀𝗸 "𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗺 𝗜 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼?" Everything else should be delegated, automated, or eliminated. ✅ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗯𝗼𝘅 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀. Spend your Tuesday solving individual operational issues, and you'll be doing it again next Tuesday. The biggest myth in leadership? That being promoted means doing more things. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵? It means doing different things. And knowing which box they belong in. 👉 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀. Sometimes the best clarity comes from one shared framework. ▶ Please 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 for practical learning on continuous improvement from real life. 📄 Join my 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 to help you improve by 1% each day, every day: https://lnkd.in/d3Zmay-H

Sometimes I look back at my time on active duty in the Air Force and wonder how I got everything done . . . how did I get kids to soccer, stay credible in the airplane, do laundry and grocery shopping, and focus on my role as a commander and leader. The reality is that there were often times throughout my career where I felt overwhelmed by multiple competing priorities . . . there just didn’t seem to be enough time in the day to get it all done. The only way I could keep my head above water was to get serious and deliberate about prioritizing. I didn’t always get this right (in fact, many times I did not), but here are a few ideas that can help you prioritize and make the most of your time: 1️⃣ Identify Your Goals/Priorities: Clearly define your objectives to focus on tasks that align with your priorities. 2️⃣ Prioritize Tasks: Conduct a thorough analysis of your daily tasks. Determine which tasks are urgent and important, and focus on completing those first. (I didn’t know about the Eisenhower Matrix then, but I find it highly effective now for prioritizing my tasks.) 3️⃣ Delegate Responsibilities: Trust others to handle tasks not directly related to your core responsibilities, freeing up time for priorities. 4️⃣ Set Realistic Deadlines: Break down larger tasks into smaller steps with achievable deadlines to maintain steady progress. Micro/quick wins are also nice. (I personally enjoy crossing items off of my to-do list.) 5️⃣ Learn to Say No: Be selective about new commitments to avoid overloading your schedule (sometimes easier said than done, and it’s helpful to have an accountability partner on this). 6️⃣ Block your Schedule: Consider setting aside specific blocks in your schedule for strategic thinking. Creating this space ensures that you are actively working toward your goals and objectives and not just getting bogged down in the weeds. 7️⃣ Review and Adjust: Regularly reassess your schedule and priorities to ensure they align with your goals, adjusting as needed. (I use a high-tech sticky note and review/re-write at the end of each day). Whether you’re a business professional, military member, entrepreneur, or student, effective time management is key to maintaining productivity and reducing stress. #LeadWithCourage ----- 🛩️ About me: I’m Kim “KC” Campbell, a retired Air Force Colonel, fighter pilot, author, and keynote speaker. I work with organizations that want to develop courageous leaders and teams so they can overcome challenges, navigate uncertainty, and elevate performance.

I recently reviewed a strategic plan that had a familiar pattern. 5 Pillars. 4 Goals per pillar. 6 Initiatives per goal. The math? 120 'priority' initiatives. That's on top of everything you do each day. Here's the thing: we're high achievers. We don't want to say no to a good idea, especially when a Board member or a donor is behind it. But when everything is a priority, nothing is. This is how "Strategic Drift" happens. You aren't struggling because of a lack of effort. You're struggling because your leadership team's capacity is being strained by the sheer volume of motion relative to progress. Strategic plans don't usually just stop. They evaporate into the daily grind. They stall under the weight of 120 competing "must-dos." The fix? Move from a Planning Mindset to an Operating Mindset. At MoonshotOS, we help schools build a formal School Operating System. It's the bridge between your high-level strategy and your Tuesday morning reality. Three shifts: • Define Your Critical Annual Priorities: I facilitate the conversations that help leadership teams stop listing and start deciding. We take that list of 120 and distill it down to the vital few that will actually move the needle this year. • The 90-Day Rule: Once you have your annual focus, you stop looking at the 5-year horizon and start looking at the next 90 days. You might select 5, 6, or 8 projects to move simultaneously, but the deadline remains the same. Shorter horizons create the urgency needed to actually finish what you start. • Change the Meeting: If your meetings are just people reporting on how busy they are, you aren't leading, you're spectating. Use that time to unblock the work and ensure those 90-day goals stay on track. You don't necessarily need a new plan. You need a better system to run the one you have. Are you managing 120 initiatives or a focused set of 90 day goals?

If you’ve ever been told by leadership that ‘everything is a priority,’ you know how frustrating it is. PMMs (and honestly, many leaders) are already juggling way too much. And being told everything is a priority just adds to the overwhelm. So why do leaders still say it? From my experience, it's likely: ❌ They don’t fully understand the trade-offs. If they don’t know what you do or the downstream cost of not doing something, then of course, everything sounds critical. ❌ They’re under pressure themselves. Investors, execs, competitors, or even a board deck can turn into “do it all, now.” So what do you do when you’re told everything is important? Here are a few tips to help you step up as the driver of clarity: ✅ Share your POV. The most effective method is to create the solution yourself. Don’t just ask “what should I do first?” Run a Priority Action Matrix across every project, show the trade-offs, and then present what you believe should be the priority. I linked this matrix in the comments. ✅ Reframe the “no” into "not now". Instead of saying no to stuff, present them as things that can be done at a later date, to indicate you are not just dismissing them. ✅ Anchor to KPIs and the big lever. Every quarter, pick one growth lever to focus on (that leadership cares the most about). Then ladder 1–3 initiatives into it, and tie them directly to company KPIs (pipeline, adoption, retention). Presenting this as a strategy, not a laundry list, will completely change the conversation. You can also access my quarterly goal-setting process in the comments. ✅ Show the data. This is extremely important to show why you simply cannot just add more things to your place. Build a simple capacity model that shows hours available vs. demands. Once you put numbers against the workload, the conversation shifts from opinion to facts. And here’s the tough truth: if you’ve tried all of this, where you have provided clarity, sequencing, frameworks, trade-offs, yet leadership still expects the impossible? That’s no longer a prioritization problem. That’s a values problem. And you get to decide if this is the company you want to be at. Of all the coaching lessons I share, this might be the most crucial for PMMs: learning to both set strategy AND advocate for it effectively. It requires practice and courage to master both skills. What's helped you most when it comes to prioritization? #productmarketing #coaching #strategy