How LEADERS can FOCUS (5 tips)
A goldfish can concentrate longer than we can. This makes it hard for leaders to be effective and to enjoy the learning process. Here 5 tips to focus better in the current hectic business world (reading takes 4 minutes).
I was in Prague last week (see short video), training a fantastic team of leaders of a big corporation. The theme of this workshop was ‘deliberate practice’ and the value of FOCUS in leadership.
The same way we have learned to walk, talk and write, everything can be learned through repetition, FOCUS, direct feedback, and support. Even effective leadership behavior!
The problem however is that we have forgotten how to effectively train ourselves primarily because we’ve lost the ability to concentrate. Human attention span has supposedly dropped from 12 seconds in 2002 to only 8 seconds in 2013, which is a second shorter than a goldfish! (Microsoft 2015)’
Within companies, it is common practice for leaders be sent out of the office for a couple of days to learn about a specific topic. When they ‘get back to business’ they expect that something has changed.
Training for a couple of days outside your work has its value, but will lose its value quickly if you do not consistently follow up within the normal day to day routine. We live in such a hectic and restless world, that this ‘follow-up’ process is not so easy to do.
Therefore I have developed something REALLY useful to help to facilitate this process of ‘deliberate practice’. A tool that will help you ‘keep your eyes on the relevant balls’ in your work and private life, in order to learn continuously and have so much more FUN.
Do you want to know what it is? I will reveal it within a couple of days, but if you leave a comment in the box below, I will send it to you immediately without any charge.
A few FOCUS tips:
1. BIG 3: Prepare your week and define your BIG 3 for the week.
2. MORNING RITUAL: Before you check emails or phone in the morning, prepare for your day.
3. DITCH THE SMART-PHONE: Buy a cheap none-smart phone (Nokia has a good one) and a duo-SIM card. Use this ‘simple’ phone as much as you can and leave the ‘smart’ version out of reach.
4. MEDITATE: Start a daily meditation practice. Any meditation technique will do here. A great app to start with is ‘Headspace’.
5. REINFORCE YOUR GOALS: Write down and evaluate your long-term goals at least once a day.
Want to have the tool or do you have questions? Leave them in the comment box!
On to a TopMind!
AJ
