ONE: The Leadership Discipline That Changes Everything

Leadership Principles

Welcome to my leadership blog series, where each post explores leadership through the lens of a single, powerful word. Today's word: ONE.

In the chaotic world of management, leaders face an endless barrage of competing priorities. Denials are climbing, staff turnover is increasing, technology implementations are behind schedule, and compliance requirements keep evolving. Sound familiar?

As leaders, we're pulled in dozens of directions daily. But here's what I've learned after years in this space: the most effective leaders master the discipline of ONE.

The ONE Thing That Matters Most

Gary Keller's groundbreaking book "The ONE Thing" revolutionized how I think about leadership effectiveness. The core question that drives everything: "What's the ONE thing I can do such that by doing it, everything else will be easier or unnecessary?"

This isn't about doing less—it's about doing what matters most, first.

In leadership, this principle becomes our north star. While your team juggles prior authorizations, claim submissions, denial management, and patient communications, your job as a leader is to identify and relentlessly focus on the ONE thing that will create the biggest impact.

The Main Thing Is Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Stephen Covey's wisdom rings especially true in our field: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." But what exactly is our "main thing"?

For most leaders, the main thing isn't the dozens of metrics we track or the countless processes we manage. It's usually something much simpler:

• Cash flow optimization - Everything else serves this master

• Team capability development - Your people are your process

• System efficiency - Technology should amplify human performance, not complicate it

The magic happens when you can identify YOUR main thing and align every decision, every meeting, every initiative around it.

The Leadership Challenge of Singular Focus

Here's where leadership gets difficult: everyone around you will try to make their priority your priority. The physician partner needs help with a specific payer issue. Finance wants better reporting. Compliance flagged a documentation concern. IT scheduled a system update.

All legitimate needs. All important in their own right. But not all equally important.

The discipline of ONE means saying no to good things so you can say yes to the great thing. It means disappointing some people in the short term to deliver exceptional results in the long term.

Practical Application: The ONE Thing Framework

Every Monday morning, I start with this question: "Based on our current performance and strategic goals, what's the ONE thing our team should focus on this week?"

Not three things. Not five priorities. ONE thing.

This might be:

• Reducing our aging in the 90+ day category

• Implementing a new denial management workflow

• Training staff on a specific payer's requirements

• Analyzing why our clean claim rate dropped

Once identified, everything else gets filtered through this lens: "Will this activity support our ONE thing this week, or distract from it?"

The Compound Effect of Focused Leadership

When you master the discipline of ONE, something remarkable happens. Your team stops feeling scattered and starts feeling focused. Instead of making incremental progress on multiple fronts, you make breakthrough progress on what matters most.

I've seen teams transform their performance not by working harder, but by working on the right thing with laser focus. The team that spent six months chasing every denial turned around their entire operation by focusing solely on front-end eligibility verification. The practice struggling with cash flow solved their problem by concentrating exclusively on reducing days in A/R.

ONE thing. Extraordinary results.

Your Leadership Challenge

As you lead your team this week, I challenge you to answer this question:

What's the ONE thing you can focus on that will make the biggest difference in your operation's performance?

Write it down. Share it with your team. Measure progress on it daily. And watch what happens when you keep the main thing the main thing.

Because in a world of infinite distractions, the leader who masters the discipline of ONE doesn't just survive—they transform their organization.

What's your ONE thing? I'd love to hear how you're putting singular focus into practice as a leader. Connect with me to continue the conversation.

Next week's word: TRUST - Why it's the currency that powers every high-performing team.