
The Leader Factor Leadership Triage: How to Prioritize When Everything Hurts
Sep 16, 2025
In a world flooded with competing priorities, focus emerges as the true prize. Using a card-collecting metaphor, the hosts illustrate how value comes from scarcity, not abundance. They emphasize the need for leaders to regularly say no to even great ideas to hone in on what truly matters. Triage becomes essential for managing resources effectively, especially in a fast-changing environment. Daily reprioritization and the power of the "one thing" question are highlighted as crucial tools for productive leadership.
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Card-Collecting Lesson On Scarcity
- Tim uses sports card collecting to illustrate value comes from scarcity, not volume.
- He contrasts junk collectors with focused collectors to show how hoarding reduces value.
Strategy Is Mostly Subtraction
- Strategy is about subtraction and letting go, not adding more initiatives.
- Value comes from focus and reduction, not from accumulating many activities.
Proliferation Beats Scarcity In Organizations
- Organizations rarely lack ideas; they suffer from idea proliferation and lack of discipline.
- You must assess potential value and make trade-offs instead of hoarding initiatives.





