This time I want to talk about focus. As leaders its part of our role to focus attention and that can be done in many ways – focussing on ourselves, focussing on others and focussing on the wider world. This article The Focused Leader (hbr.org) sums it up nicely:
“Every leader needs to cultivate this triad of awareness, in abundance and in the proper balance, because a failure to focus inward leaves you rudderless, a failure to focus on others renders you clueless, and a failure to focus outward may leave you blindsided”.
Focussing on ourselves means harnessing our emotional intelligence, self-control and being authentic.
Focussing on others means explaining yourself in simple ways; understanding the emotions of others; and sensing what they need from you. The hbr paper talks about how more senior people lose their ability to maintain connections, consistently focussing less on less senior people and are more likely to interrupt or monopolise the conversation.
Focussing on the wider world means being a good questioner as well as a good listener; understanding the consequences of local decisions in the future etc and tapping into visionary skills.
So being a focussed leader is not solely about concentrating on your priorities. Focussed leaders are aware of how others see them, they understand what others need from them, they can weed out distractions, they carve out time to reflect and also allow their minds to roam widely, free of preconceptions.
All areas of focus can be strengthened. What it takes is a commitment — a willingness to exercise focus, just as we exercise other skills.
With that in mind, take time to think:
- How focussed are you as a leader?
- Are you focussing enough on all three areas or is there an imbalance?
- What happens in fast paced situations, do you still maintain a focus on others and tap into the full range of ideas and talents available?
- What conditions do you need in place to enable you to be more focussed? How are you going to make that so?
As leaders, we can show our people that we are role modelling the changes that all of us want to see. Let’s be better and be the change – contact [email protected] if you would like help to do so.
For more articles, encouraging you to think and be the change – visit here.