[January 10, 2016] My first day at the U.S. Army War College was a day of awakening for myself and many others. We were told how lucky we were to have been accepted and the importance of academic integrity, but that the first thing we had to do was to identify our personal top priorities. What? Identify our priorities? “What the heck was this about?” we asked.
We all thought this was a stupid requirement. Of course we knew our priorities but once we sat down to write them, we got a surprise. We didn’t know as much about them as we once had thought. We were told that as military officers it was common that we would have to focus on the top three. Easy? So we imagined.
“Action expresses priorities.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Three common top priorities we listed were: faith, family, and friendships. We were asked to rank order them and to define what actions we would take to ensure those listed remained important to us. Such a task was far more difficult than we had imagined it to be. For example, was faith more important than family? To complicate the task, we spent faraway more time, effort, and struggle with our profession as military officers than any of our top priorities.
“To succeed today, you have to set priorities, decide what you stand for.” – Lee Iacocca
For a senior leader in any profession the choices are difficult. Most would name equivalent priorities as those in my War College class. The fact is however is that we often don’t practice our priorities. One friend of mine stated that “we must be hypocrites of the highest order if this is true.” Eye opening for those of us who thought we were “hot shot,” up-and-coming military professionals.
Among the failures of leaders is their inability to thoughtfully establish their life’s priorities and then follow them. I’ve found it enormously difficult to balance them in peaceful times; in combat it will challenge the soul of anyone.
How we sort out those priorities and hold close to us what is important, is what sets apart those who are good from the riffraff. The fact that we do struggle is telling and comforting that some folks actually try their best to hold close to them their faith, family, and friends.
[Don’t forget to “Like” the Leader Maker at our Facebook Page.]