Creating Confident Leaders - Staying Focused

One of the biggest traps a leader can fall into is losing focus.   I have written before about the importance of clarity and purpose and how important it is for leaders to have a sense of purpose, articulate that clearly and engage their followers with that purpose.

However, the trick is that you need to keep that sense of purpose strong and consistent and to be able to do that you must stay focused.

I know that this will resonate with everyone – the challenge of staying focused on the IMPORTANT aspects of your leadership role and taking consistent action on these, as opposed to losing that focus, getting lost in overwhelm and the need to react to a constant stream of demands.

This is also one of THE biggest issues for most of the leaders I know.  So many people I coach are consistently bogged down in operational stuff and other peoples problems and only lift their head up for the important work when there is a deadline or an external driver.  I don’t know if that is true for you and if it isn’t, if you feel you take focused consistent action all the time on the important – the strategic side of your role – great work, you are already three steps ahead of a lot of leaders.  The best leaders are the ones who stay focused and act consistently on their most important goals. 

One of your areas of FOCUS needs to be consistently looking ahead and around for opportunities and threats.  I was at a masterclass a few months ago and a colleague of mine showed a great photo which emphasized this.  A group of friends on holiday in Africa.  Camped in their tent, having a great time.  It was only when one took a photo of another they saw in the flash behind the guys back – a ring of eyes – a pride of lions had wandered into their camp.  They didn’t see them coming because they weren’t looking.  They were focused on something else.  I wouldn’t want to say whether they saw those lions as an opportunity or a threat but for sure they needed to know they were there!  Where are your lions?  Do you know?  Are you looking?

Scattered thinking is the enemy of focus.  If you are constantly chasing between meetings, answering emails & taking calls in between, always on the run, always onto the next thing before this thing has finished THEN YOU ARE NOT FOCUSED.  Now focus doesn’t just happen it has to be created.  Laser focus is the aim.  If you are not focused then, you are also not motivated to ACHIEVE THE RIGHT THINGS and you are NOT ACTING ON THE RIGHT THINGS.  Its all linked.

I know that as you read this that most of you are nodding your heads and agreeing with me – I also know that most of you are saying to yourself.  “That’s all very well, and I have tried everyway I know to get to the important things but I can’t crack doing it consistently because there simply is so much to do (and no one else to do it), that I always end up overwhelmed again”.

On a recent webinar, I asked people to identify the 3 most important things they and their team needed to achieve in the next 3-6 months and then protect the time to spend the first 90 minutes of each day working on those.  We talked about resisting other demands, being ruthless with your calendar etc.  I got great feedback in the first month after that webinar, lots of people had implemented these strategies and really felt they were getting to grips with their important priorities.

BUT and it’s a big BUT, people then started slipping back into overwhelm, losing their focus and getting stuck again.  So how do you stay focused?  One thing is to identify your big WHY’s – Why are these things so important?

OK, so firstly write down NOW your top 3 things – remember these are the MOST IMPORTANT things you and your team need to achieve in the next 3-6 months.

Next write down the consequences of NOT achieving those things – what will happen if you don’t?  AND the benefits – what difference will it make when you do achieve them?  Top tip here – if those consequences OR the benefits (or preferably both), are not serious then these things are not going to FEEL compelling enough for you to stay focused on them.  Its true – EITHER the benefit of achieving OR the consequence of not achieving has to be really compelling or its not going to be enough to help you stay focused.  This is one of the things that sabotages all the good intentions that leaders have.  The objectives that we SAY are important don’t FEEL important enough in the moment to override other things.  So, take a moment and identify not just the important things but their benefits and consequences. 

Now you need to keep those benefits and consequences somewhere very visible to you, somewhere you cannot miss them.   Also, it’s a great idea to share these with your team to help them stay focused.

Then create a discipline where you review (your team can also help with this).  It could be at your team meetings, a Monday morning get together, a regular video call, whatever the structure is for your team keeping in touch, add in your important priorities and review them regularly.

Finally – stop making excuses!!  I know it sounds harsh and you will say, “I’m not making excuses, there is genuinely just so much coming at me that its very tough to stay focused on the important stuff when crises seem to arise all the time”.  I know its tough, HOWEVER, unless you crack this one, it will seriously impact your leadership.

So, get focused, know WHY its important to stay focused, create some disciplines to help you and above all, don’t fall into excuses.  You got this!!!