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Intentional Leadership — D1, W4, M4 — Focus

As we begin week four of our month on Focus, let’s consider the fruits of being focused.

Focus allows you to see through all the other stuff, the every day events that some might consider distractions, but what we really know to be simple, every day life, and continue to forge ahead toward your goal.

Focus allows you to keep going, even when things get hard and you want to quit, because you know the feeling of satisfaction that awaits you at the other end…when you have accomplished your goal.

Think back to what you may have read about the 1936 Olympics. Most of the world was focused on race issues, pitting white athletes against black athletes. Jessie Owens did not allow himself to get caught up in the rhetoric; he focused on running his race.

As he entered the Munich Stadium, Swastikas were everywhere; the stadium was filled with white spectators…including Adolf Hitler. As we know Hitler and his contemporaries viewed blacks as less than human, inferior to whites in every way.

If this was not a moment fraught with distraction and stress, I can’t imagine what would be.

What did Owens do? To be sure, he felt the weight of the moment. Win or lose, he knew there was risk regardless of the outcome.

While we can’t know what he was thinking, we need only to read the stories to know what he did. Jesse Owens rocketed out of his starting stance and flew past the competition to take the Gold in the 100-yard dash. He did the same in the 200-yard event. He also won the long jump and ran the lead leg for the 4 x 100 relay.

Clearly, Owens retained his focus on what he had set in front of himself, rather than allowing himself to become distracted by the loud and very obvious controversy. He achieved his goals; he earned respect; he brought hope to others.

While our situations are certainly less dire, we are still often surrounded by a wide variety of other issues, people, and situations attempting to grab out attention and divert our focus.

Effective leaders block out the noise, fear, and anxiety, choosing instead to retain their focus and move confidently in the direction of their visions, goals, and dreams. When you do this, when you display this kind of focus and courage in the face of adversity, you earn respect, give others hope, and build momentum.

What do you need to do this week to focus on your “100-yard dash”?

What benefits will you reap when you remain focused in the face of distraction and move confidently in the direction of your vision?

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Intentional Leadership — D4, W1, M4 — Focus

Today, I encourage you to spend some time journaling about the goal you accomplished this week using your objective statement and task list.

Did you do it?

Were you successful?

Were you more aware of the big picture surrounding the task and how it involved others?

As a result, were you able to come up with a task list more quickly from the objective statement?

Were your activities more focused this week than in previous weeks?

What have you learned, so far, about focus, that you can carry forward and increase your effectiveness going forward?

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Intentional Leadership — D1-W1-M4 — Focus

This week we will spend some time studying the big picture — getting the lay of the land and understanding what it means for us in our teams and organizations. If you are a detail-oriented person, this could be a stretch for you, but I encourage you to work on this, because it’s critical to your success.

In order to be strategic in whatever you are doing, you need to be able to see the big picture. Once you have some understanding of the what’s happening in your industry, with your competition, and within your organization, then you can channel your energy and activity toward achieving some clear objectives designed to help you achieve your big goals. Only then can you shift your attention to the details.

Working as a professional communicator for the past 20 years, this is how I approach my work, whether the work at hand is in support of a corporate long-term strategic objective, or a one-time communication effort. I always ask my “client” what they are trying to accomplish? What end are they trying to reach? What do they want the audience the know, understand, and do as a result of the communication?

Once they are able to answer those questions, I am able to design a communication plan that will help them reach their goals. This includes segmenting the audience (I strongly recommend a precision targeted approach, rather than the shotgun — spraying your message over everyone hoping it will hit some of the right people — approach), gaining some understanding of what they know and what they need to know, defining key messages, identifying the best communication vehicles to use, outlining a timeline, and specifying who will deliver the message. Only then do we actually begin to craft the communication.

For those who are focused on the details or are impatient about just sending the message, it can be a painful process. But, I can attest that after 20 years of approaching my work this way, the results are worth it (proven by  both the clients who have taken my advice and achieved the results they sought, as well as by the clients who thought I was simply wasting their time and forged ahead with poorly developed communication and were significantly disappointed by their results).

I believe it was David Grossman who said (in his book You Can’t Not Communicate) that effective leader-communicators spend 80% of their time, with respect to a communication effort, actually planning for the communication and only 20% of it on delivery.

So, what’s your big picture?

What goals have you set in support of achieving that big vision for your work?

What about the goals you’ve set for the rest of your life?

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