Prioritization Is a Leadership Skill

The "Count" Moment Between Two Project Managers

Years ago I ran a program at State Farm with multiple teams working on a connected design effort. The work touched record entry, processing, and the financial transactions on the back end. Two of my project managers got into a personal fight about whose project came first. They escalated it to me with the kind of energy that meant they had stopped talking and started lawyering.

I said one word: "Count."

They both knew the answer. Priorities had been made visible at every increment. We had ranked the work. They both knew which project was first and which was second. The fight evaporated because there was nothing to fight about. One PM took the lead seat for the next stretch. The other stayed close. Work moved. Nobody held a grudge because nobody had been ambushed and because the rules were consistent. The PM whose project came second knew the priority could shift, and when it shifted he would be on top. Sometimes it did. The system was about priority, not favor. Both of them knew that going in.

That moment only worked because the prioritization had already happened. If I had needed to choose between the two projects in the heat of that escalation, I would have made the wrong call, or I would have ducked the call and pretended both were tied. The prioritization was the work. The "Count" was just collecting on it.

I learned to set up moments like that from JB, a retired Navy Captain turned program director who mentored me. He taught me that prioritization is the work that buys you calm under pressure. The ranked list, made visible at every increment, was a tool he gave me before I knew I would need it.

What "Modernize and Execute" Sounded Like Inside the Room

I have been on the other side of that. A different program. Different leaders. The kickoff line was "modernize and execute." That was it. No first. No second. No tradeoff anyone was willing to name in front of the room.

The teams worked hard. Activity was high. Velocity charts looked great. The ROI never showed up because nobody could agree on what success looked like. Different sponsors had different first priorities, and most of them said theirs was the first. Teams ping-ponged between competing demands. Late nights happened. Quality slid. The thing that stung the most was that some of the leaders who refused to prioritize got promoted anyway, while the people who had carried the work watched from their seats.

That is the cost of a leader dodging prioritization. The team pays. The credibility of leadership erodes. People stop believing that doing the right thing maps to anything visible.

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate

JB also taught me a Navy aviator phrase that has stuck with me ever since: aviate, navigate, communicate.

When something goes wrong on a project, the parallel question is the same. Do you want the team explaining it or fixing it? I will take fixing every time.

What I have built into my own habit is a small set of three questions I ask the team when surprise risk shows up. They are not blame questions. They are orientation questions. They sound like this:

1. What is the best case?
2. What is the most likely case?
3. What is the worst case?

The team answers. I take what they tell me and go clear roadblocks for the best or most likely outcome. They keep flying the plane. I go talk to the tower. Aviate. Navigate. Communicate. In that order.

When Everything Is Priority One

The phrase I find myself saying out loud more than any other is this. When everything is priority one, nothing is.

Every business function wants to be most important. Sales wants the new feature for the demo on Tuesday. Compliance wants the audit fix. Legal wants the privacy work. Marketing wants the campaign asset. Each one comes to the room with a real reason and a real deadline. Each one believes in their request. Each one is right that what they are asking for matters.

That does not mean each one can be first.

The hardest part of leadership is telling four people you respect that their thing is not first this quarter, and meaning it well enough that they keep working with you. If you cannot do that, you end up with five number ones, which is zero number ones, and your teams burn through their energy trying to make every plate spin at once.

The Leader's Job Nobody Wants

Prioritization is the leadership work that does not show up on a status report. It looks like nothing on a slide. There is no chart for it. The proof of it is invisible, because the proof is what your teams do not have to argue about.

The work itself is hard for three reasons. First, it requires a leader to actually choose, which means somebody finds out theirs was not first. Second, it requires the leader to communicate the choice clearly enough that the team can act on it without checking back in every twenty minutes. Third, it requires the leader to keep choosing as conditions change, which means going back to the same people and saying the order has shifted, and explaining why.

Most of the calm leadership I have seen up close came from people who did this part of the job well. Not because they were calm by personality, although some were. Because they had already done the hardest piece of the work before the surprise hit, and the team knew where things stood. When the moment came, all they had to say was "Count."

If your team is fighting about whose work comes first, the fight is downstream of a prioritization decision somebody at a higher level did not make. Stop the fight by making the call. One ranked list. Made visible. Reviewed when conditions change. The list does not have to be perfect. It has to exist.

Prioritization is the leadership work everyone wants somebody else to do. It is also the work that buys you calm under pressure. You cannot have one without the other.