Eleven Ways Leaders Create Focus

Focus is a key Personal Skill of successful people. The ability to bore into the most important things and stay attentive and focused on them, and continue that behavior as a means of solving problems, contacting prospects, writing a report, preparing a presentation, doing an analysis, maximizing the value of a meeting, is key to success. Focus maximizes time - it results in more being done in less time.


And yet, for most people, acquiring the Personal Skill of focus seems impossible - too many distractions, too many things and too little time, too many impositions to even think of focusing on one thing for any period of time. The result is that a lot of decisions are made with superficial research, at best. Even the most important decisions get short attention - or get set aside, all in the name of not enough time.


You won't hear the highly successful using the excuse of too little time. They take the time - they make the time - they treasure their time - they refuse to let their time be dribbled away on "stuff."


How do they do that?


We asked the most effective people we know how they can seem to get so much accomplished. Here's a summary of the advice they gave us.


1 - Be selfish with your time and be rewarded with focus and time to be generous. Guard your time against the many intruders that would consume it to no effect. Once that's done, time for focusing just seems to appear. And time to be generous in giving to others appears as well.


2 - Know what's most important to you - that day. If you can't state what are the most important things to you - for that day - you can't possibly maximize time and create focus. Goals are critical to creating focus and effectiveness.


3 - Live your life in "day tight compartments." Dale Carnegie made that suggestion in his book "Stop Worrying and Start Living." What does that mean? Don't waste time on yesterday, don't waste time on tomorrow - spend your time - physically and emotionally, in today. Wall off all those things that try to intrude that aren't important today. Focus on today - exclude all other things. Make today it's own day tight compartment


4 - Create trust wherever you can. The more trust people have in you, the more time you will have to focus on your most important things.


5 - Eat the frog first. Brian Tracy - in a book of the same name, advises that the frog - the most important thing you have to do today - be the first thing attacked every day. Failure to do that results in constant looking over your shoulder and anxiety - both are robbers of focus.


6 - Ask! Ask for help, ask for resources, ask for information, ask for cooperation. And be a giver and a taker - in equal measure.


7 - Train yourself to focus. Use an hour as your time block and spend an uninterrupted hour on focusing on the most important thing. Be amazed at the end of that time to see how much progress you have made. Extend that focus exercise to your other top goals. The skill of focusing and giving undivided attention for an hour is a top 10% skill - it gives enormous competitive advantage.


8 - Learn to say no. If you're not enthusiastic about doing something you won't do a good job. And that will corrode trust, and create anxiety, and lead to interpersonal issues. Plus, being a martyr to someone else's needs is really unattractive - and unappreciated. If you've ever tried to really focus on something you didn't feel good about, you know what a waste of time that is.


9 - Be realistic. Everyone has a boss. It may be that on any given day very little time will be available for focus on important stuff. Other things get in the way. Treasure that one hour that is available and spend it focused on the most important thing.


10 - Don't confuse busy with focused or effective. Often all busy is is a way to avoid the truly important.


11 - Be a respecter of the time of others. To the extent that you want your time respected, you gotta respect the time of others. If you don't respect the time of others, you're a taker - and nobody likes or respects a taker.

Start today - in this particular "day tight compartment" - to develop the Personal Skill of focus. Start with goals - and then translate them into daily goals and tasks. Watch your effectiveness and accomplishments soar.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com/; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2008 All Rights Reserved

Eight Bad Assumptions We All Make, and How To Remedy Them

Assumptions have the potential to get you in trouble - big trouble. The assumptions that are the subject of this article are the ones we make based on our own behaviors, attitudes, and skills. We start by assuming that others think, act and have skills similar to our own. In fact, each of us is so unique that assumptions based on behaviors, attitudes and skills will result in being wrong at least 70% of the time.

An example:

A client had a manager who was highly intelligent, very energetic, demanding and always looking for new approaches to problems. Not a bad combination of attributes in a manager. He was also firmly convinced of the rightness of his ways. The business he was managing was in crisis - it needed firm direction. The problem was the frequency of new initiatives. He would direct his limited staff to new issues requiring action and resources on a weekly basis. The stretched thin, survival trained staff did all that they could to keep up -but they invariably fell behind. Lots of balls in the air - lots of activity - no additional resources. The manager assumed that since he had instructed his people on what to do that they were doing it - and they were afraid to tell him the truth.

He assumed his people would act the same as he did when his boss told him to do something. He would make his bosses request his first priority, and do whatever had to be done to get it done. He assumed his people would do the same when he made the same kind of demands.

That was a bad assumption.

He was very proud of all the things he was doing to turn this business around, and for the first few months, progress - measured by activity - was good. And then the cracks started to show. Shipments delayed, quality issues, turnover of critical people, earnings estimates missed. His response was to turn up the pressure to get the things done that he had assumed were either done or well on their way to completion. He was stunned to see that very little had really changed. His people were bogged down - too many balls in the air - too many things to focus on. He was fired.

So much of what had happened could have turned out differently, if he had assumed less, and verified more.


What follows are eight of the most common assumptions we all make in our work- every day. They have the potential to be fatal to our careers. The assumptions, a short narrative and a suggested remedy for each follow.

Assumption 1 - My boss and I are on the same page.


The newer the relationship, the better the chance that this assumption is wrong. Often very wrong.

Remedy - Ask your boss to write down the 3 to 5 most important things that you must do , and you do the same. Exchange your answers -being in agreement on 2 to 3 out of 5 is very good.


Assumption 2 -My people and I are on the same page.


Once again, the newer the relationship, the better the chance that this assumption is false - and really dangerous.


Remedy - Do the same thing with your people that you did with your boss - do the boss thing first.

Assumption 3 -I shouldn't have to ask.


Why not? Every one else has to. The very idea that other people should know what to do or how to act is so far from the truth that many, many relationships are destroyed by the assumption that someone should know enough to keep you from having to ask.


Remedy - Ask. If asking sticks in your throat - and it does for a lot of people, read the "Aladdin Factor" by Victor Hansen. Terrific book

Assumption 4 -People will do what I tell them to do.


Not necessarily. There are lots of reasons that they may do something other than what you anticipated. More pressing work, a misunderstanding about what is to be done, conflicting priorities, you name it, it exists.


Remedy - Create goals with the end in mind. Then communicate the goals, then hold regular updates - formally or informally, depending upon the culture of your organization.

Assumption 5 - People see things the same way I do.


Not true. Put a group of people in a room - show them the same picture. Watch the different interpretations, conclusions, ---. And yet they were all in the same room - given the same instructions - looked at the same thing. Amazing.


Remedy - Create goals that clearly state the result and the steps to take to reach it. Involve the people who will participate in meeting the goal in the development of the goals.

Assumption 6 -My managers have all the freedom they need to accomplish their goals.

Probably not. Reminds me of a highly experienced manager hired to run a Canadian acquisition of a US. His boss, the CEO, told everyone he had complete authority. Actually, he couldn't approve even a $10 expenditure without corporate accounting's approval. As soon as that became apparent, he lost a lot of influence with his people. The CEO said accounting had to be involved. His idea of involvement, the new manager's and the accounting department's take were very different. It never got resolved. The new manager resigned after 6 months .

Remedy - This is where the bureaucracy needs to be checked carefully. The boss assumes their people have the same approval and indirect reporting relationships and understandings as they do. Not. The boss needs to lead in developing effective, consistent working relationships up, down and sideways for their people.

Assumption 7 -People who speak with conviction are experts on the subject. Not necessarily.

Often the person speaking the loudest and with the most conviction is in fact drowning out the real expert who doesn't share the same behavior profile.

Remedy - Make sure all have the opportunity to voice their contribution. Be skeptical of all inputs until all the players are heard. Don't let anecdotal feedback overly influence the decision. How often have we all heard about the mysterious "they" that said something and it got play way out of proportion to its value and substance? Check any newspaper for examples of that dynamic.

Assumption 8 - People will see the same opportunity the same way I do.

No they won't. In fact, roughly 70% of the population will see consequences and problems before they see opportunities - if they see them at all. That leaves 30% that may see things the same way you do - not a high percentage. Both consequence and opportunity people are valuable, contributing people in every organization - value both inputs.


Remedy - Be sure to communicate what you see as the opportunity in terms of your people's interests. And be sure to listen to and value the issues and problems the pessimists will bring up - better to get them on the table than have them fester in the group without recognition or resolution.


Assumptions can be the biggest hurdle every manager and leader has to overcome in their career. Assumptions made about them, assumptions they make about others, all have low probability of being accurate. Start by checking your own thinking against the 8 assumptions stated in this article. Then act to replace them with goals and comunications that align effort with expectations. Start today.

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: http://www.coxconsultgroup.com; Blog: http://multiplysuccess.blogspot.com/

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved

Acceptance, A Powerful Skill For Change

Acceptance is one of those things we rarely think about as a Personal Skill, but it can make a huge difference in our success - in all parts of our life.

A story to illustrate my point:

I'm a fly fisherman. I learned from my uncle -a great guy who only used one kind of fly, had one rod and one reel and was extremely skillful in seeking out and catching trout in mountain streams. I grew up believing there were certain ways to fly fish - especially for trout. As my experience grew, I stuck to what I had been taught by my uncle, and I regarded with suspicion all the changes and new things that had come to the sport after the movie "A River Runs Through It" created a whole new group of fly fishers. In my mind all that had happened was the streams had become more crowded - and with people who didn't share a lot of my values and experience. But then I began to notice that a lot of these people were pretty good - good casters, good flytiers, good knot tiers, and good at catching trout. Gradually, and grudgingly, I came to realize that I was standing still while the sport that I loved was changing and growing. I decided to join in and find out what all this stuff was about. I learned more in one year than I had learned in all my previous 20 years of fly fishing! What a change! What a terrific set of possibilities opened up for me! And it all started with my being willing to accept change in my beliefs and attitudes toward my sport.

That's my story, and I share it to illustrate how acceptance precedes change as a behavior. Without the openness of acceptance there can be little change. If I hadn't accepted the changes and made them my own in fly fishing, I would have missed out on a whole new set of possibilities. I'd still be a fly fisherman, but I would have missed so much!

My fly fishing experience helped me become aware of how many possibilities I was missing by not being more accepting of other people, other ideas, other cultures, other stuff! And I decided I really needed to hear my self talk, start questioning why I do things the way I do, and start listening to others and accepting what they have to say as having as much value as my ideas and thoughts.

It's easy in our lives to "harden up" and become fixed in what we do and say and think - to stay in that comfort zone of what we already know. Except, we really start shrinking a little every day when that happens.

I don't want my world to shrink as I get older. I want it to grow and be bigger and richer and filled with truly interesting and challenging things. The only way I know to have that happen is to become more accepting of things different from me. Not easy - but essential to continuing growth.

The really great thing about acceptance is how it prepares people for inevitable change. When the plant closes, when a career change is required, when a new boss shows up, when a move to a different place to live occurs, the people who have prepared themselves to accept and greet those changes with a positive attitude are the people that will not just survive, but prosper. And with the rate of change increasing all the time, acceptance is really a survival skill, as well as a critical leadership skill.

Make acceptance part of your daily self talk and habits of thought - make it part of goals - make new experiences things to be treasured. You will live a fuller life for it!

Written by Andy Cox, President

Cox Consulting Group LLC, 4049 E Vista Drive, Phoenix, AZ 85032 Ph: 602-795-4100; Fax: 602-795-4800; E Mail: acox@coxconsultgroup.com; Website: www.coxconsultgroup.com

Copyright 2007 All Rights Reserved