If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any. Determining your top-3 priorities and how they’re going to be measured is arguably the most important job of a leader because most of the work that everybody does will flow from those goals. Those priorities have to be lined up as carefully for each quarter or you’re certainly going off-course over time. You want to succeed finishing your top-3 priority selection for each quarter.

And it may sound simple, but it is often one of the greatest challenges that teams and companies face. Typically leaders start listing five or seven or 11 priorities.

The trick is to prioritise the ‘important’ and select what the top-3 actions are for the quarter. How you are going to measure progress along the way. Tomorrow, we will have our Annual Session with Patrick Thean. We will be deriving our plan for 2018 and top-priorities for Q1.

Once you have your top-3, you have to keep reminding your team of the priorities, even if it can feel repetitive. People often have to hear something a few times before they truly remember it. “You say something seven times and they haven’t heard you,” he said. “Until they start making jokes about how often you repeat it, they haven’t internalized it.”

Then, hold everyone on your team accountable for their work and role on the team. In effect, it’s a simple bargain that leaders can offer their employees: “I’ll treat you well, but we’re also going to be clear about the work you’re expected to contribute.”

You need a culture where we value the people who do what they say — they have a high ‘do-to-say ratio.  You just need people who follow through, and it’s a lot more fun when the people you work with do that. You can count on them and communication flows faster.