Leadership Lessons from the United States Naval Academy – Prioritization: Knowing that you can’t do it all

United States Naval Academy midshipmen are under never ending pressure to learn and develop, to become the finest military officers in the world. Each midshipman is assigned a full undergraduate workload to be completed in no more than four years. In addition, they are required to participate in four years of physical education training, naval leadership and law classes, naval science and engineering courses, seamanship and navigation studies, varsity or intramural sports, and military drill besides attending Forrestal Lectures (formal presentation series keynoted by noteworthy government and military leaders), all home football games, and a host of other developmental activities. These men and women often find themselves doing more in one day than many in the public would do in half a week. Consequently, midshipmen learn to prioritize their efforts to ensure satisfactory achievement of all requirements for graduation – their personal mission. A failure to do so may leave an individual falling short in any one area resulting in possible dismissal from the academy.

Prioritization is a real part of every professional’s life. While few are challenged to the degree midshipmen are, all face the daunting task of deciding where to best apply their scarce resource of time. Like the midshipmen who focus on the requirements of graduation, StrategyDriven Professionals focus on personal goals achievement. By doing so, these individuals are better able to weigh the goals contribution of their efforts. Lesser contributing activities present themselves as opportunities for demotion or elimination from the application of individual attention. Likewise, high contribution activities should receive increased attention.

Having prioritized his or her efforts, the StrategyDriven Professional finds goal achievement occurs much more readily and with much less effort. Such prioritization helps reduce the amount of stress one incurs and provides for an overall improvement in personal fulfillment.

About the Author

Nathan Ives is a StrategyDriven Principal, and Class of 1992 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.