What Is Your Water?

Kat Cole, COO, and president of FOCUS Brands told a story about how doing humanitarian work in eastern Africa helped her better understand the importance of having clear priorities.

She was working with a village in Ethiopia and her team asked the leaders in the village, "What are your priorities? How can we help you?" One of the village leaders said, "Well, our number one priority is water. We need it to get to the places it needs to go to water our farms and vegetation, and we need to sanitize it so we can drink it and have proper nutrition and hygiene."

They wrote down water, and then they asked, "What are some other things you are focused on? What's your second, third, and fourth priority?"

Kat said, "Their response needed no translation because it was laughter." They said, "Our number two priority is water. Our number three priority is water, and our number four priority is water. You can build us a school if you want, but if we're sending our children to go get water, they won't be in the classroom. And you can teach us about hygiene and nutrition if you want, but if we can't get water where it needs to go, it will be meaningless."

Kat said she had an out-of-body leadership experience. she said, "Wow, they're so clear on their priorities. If I could only be that clear. In my business, with my teams, in my personal life. If only I could be that clear!"

Kat said, "When I returned, I told this story to our teams at FOCUS Brands, and I said, "From now on I'm going to ask you this question: What is our water? What is the one thing to do right now so that everything else would get better on its own?"

What is your water? What is your top priority? What is the one thing your team needs right now so that everything else can get better?