Insights on Business

Well, Ive come to the final leadership series blog. Focus.

I'm sure everyone will recognise the need to focus when they're involved in a task or action.  Something like driving the kids to school takes focus to keep on the right side of the road, all the while with warring factions and arguments going on in the back seat.

I'll explain focus like this. Imagine you're trying to catch a rabbit. Suddenly a second rabbit comes into view, very near the first. And they start to move together. You think "hey, 2 rabbits are better than 1". But in the process of trying to catch both, they both escape. Why? Lack of focus.

Something Im getting out of the habit of is talking on the phone and typing at the same time.  I make a mess of the words - both those I speak and those I type.  Im not focused.

Many years ago I was speaking with a client about strengths and weaknesses.  I mentioned a few things that I wanted to get better at.  He asked my why.  My response was because I thought I was weak in those areas.  The response was interesting and not what I was expecting.  He said to get better at what I was good at and use others to fill where I was weak, because the time and effort spent on the weakness would be better spent elsewhere.

It was all about where I should direct my focus.

So then I came up with this split of my time for my development;

• 80% - spend this amount of time, energy and resources working on and to strengths
• 15% - looking at new skills to get better, change and improve
• 5% - working on weaknesses

We generally want to be an all-rounder, but whats wrong with being a specialist?  Works for many in the medical field.  It just takes Focus.

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