“Focus On What Matters” Is Actually BAD Business Advice, Because It’s A Suitcase Concept

Focus, instead, on doing your job in the best way possible.

I just did a daily doom-scroll of Harvard Business Review and I found two articles — one about DEI, and one about emotions at work and whether you should show them — where the author exhorted the readers to “focus on what matters.” You see this a lot in business journalism, and you hear it a lot from high-middle managers at all-hands meetings. We’re supposed to focus on what:

• Matters
• Is a priority
• Is of greatest value to the business
• Will drive us forward

But … there’s this whole notion of “suitcase words” too. A suitcase word, simply, is one that carries multiple definitions for people. For example, go ask 100 people what “equality” is. You will get 83 different answers. Go ask a different 100 people what the “mission” of a company means. Aside from “make money,” you will get a variety of different answers. Heck, go ask people what their “purpose” in life is. You’ll get dozens of answers about kids, religion, family, freedom, being a good person, etc. There’s no universal right or wrong or single-way on this stuff (and there shouldn’t be).