Ishani had been building something no one in her region had attempted before: a new model of caring for the most vulnerable people in the community. She was six months into operations and “taking hits from many directions.”
Ishani arrived at every one of our sessions with a growing list of issues: regulatory deadlines, enrollment targets, payment challenges, home care licensing, transportation problems, staffing gaps, board expectations, and vendor contracts. She was touching everything, and it showed.
The empathetic leader her team loved— the deep listener, the analytical thinker— was becoming reactive and short. I asked her, “Of everything on that list, what are the three most impactful things that only you can move forward in the next ninety days?”
She was quiet, but not uncomfortable. She was processing, reflecting, and running scenarios.
Finally, Ishani said she’d been treating every item with equal urgency, even though she knew they weren’t all equally important.
“I need to triage and focus. More considered response and less immediate reaction.”
She walked me through her thinking and landed on the enrollment system, her relationship with her medical director, and the development of her two strongest leaders as the three things only she could move forward. Everything else either belonged to someone on her team or needed to wait.
In Ishani’s natural style, she made no grand announcement of what she discovered. She acted. She stopped attending meetings that others could run. She carved out time each week for strategic thinking. She slowed down with her direct reports, asking better questions instead of solving their problems.
Within two months, her team started making decisions without waiting for her permission. When she traveled out of the country, the team handled a crisis on its own, letting her know only after the fact.
Two years later, the program she built was thriving. Her team was strong enough to operate without her in the room. She told me near the end of our work together, “I used to feel incompetent every single day. Now I know the difference between carrying everything and carrying what matters.”
Focus isn’t about doing less. It’s about deciding what deserves your attention.
THE QUESTION
What would change if you stopped trying to touch everything and identified the three things that only you can move forward right now?
The answer will not reduce your workload. It will redirect it.
“You don’t need more time. You need more focus.” — Shane Parrish