Focus is a skill that can be developed and strengthened over time.  One of the exercises that I have clients do is to identify times during the week that they can block out for projects and or critical thinking.  They are to have their administrative assistants put it down on their calendars as “unavailable” and rarely is the event to be cancelled although it can be moved.

To help them with the rapid flow of leadership issues that occur during the week, they are encouraged to create an open list called their “Critical Focus List (CFL).”  This is nothing more than a place where they can keep a list of projects and or decisions that they are going to work on during the time they have reserved for focus work. This is communicated with their team members so that they know when they can expect decisions to be made or responses to their questions given.

This “trick of the trade” has helped many of leaders over the years and is a tool that I still use every week.  This is not rocket science but I am surprised how many leaders struggle to take a proactive approach to their work load.

Here are a few questions for you that might be of help:

1. Do you have some sort of a CFL that is easy to access and update?
2. Do you block out times on a regular basis for focusing?
3. Have you created a culture in your office that promotes the use of blocking time and the use of CFLs?

With a little effort and improvement you will find yourself next December feeling better about your year and the way your invested your life.

Remember, if you can’t lead yourself well you will always struggle to lead others well.

By nature, leaders are wired to advance, to win, and to lead others to do the same. This is what they do and where they are most comfortable.  When they lack clarity, it becomes very difficult for them to do what they do best.

There are many areas where a person needs to be clear but let me mention two that are most surprising to my clients; purpose and possibilities.  My job as a leadership coach is to help others become clear on their purpose to the point that they can communicate it back to me and convince me that they have reconnected with their core.  If they can’t convince me then the odds are they will not be able to convince anyone else.  Also, I work hard to help them reconnect with the possibilities of finishing well.  This is a natural source of passion and energy that revitalizes their confidence.

Suggestion:  Spend 15 minutes thinking about your one and only life and identify areas where you lack clarity.  In particular, focus on your purpose and possibilities.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ARTICLE: How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton Christensen

I recommend this article to my clients as a resource to prepare for their annual FINISHING WELL review with me.

Worth the read!

Bob Lutz in his recent book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters makes the point that GM was doing fine until in the mid 1970s the MBA-trained finance guys took control of product development from the “car guys,” who were engineers and designers. The result, he says, was inferior cars and a decline in the firm. He believes that CEOs and the top management should not be bean counters but rather should be a “product guys.”

The poster child for his view was Roger Smith who was an MBA-trained accounting and finance specialist. During his ten year tenure as GE’s CEO during the 80s, Smith made breathtaking strategic and operating blunders. He invested in robotics that did not work, created a disastrous reorganization that resulted in cars so similar they were a joke (remember the Cadillac Cimarron?), mismanaged some ill-conceived acquisitions, built up enormous debt, and on and on. GM’s share went from 45% to 36% under his watch. A role model, on the other hand, was Steve Jobs, with no degree but deep computer expertise, who spawned a string of product successes brilliantly executed.

I think Bob is an impressive executive (ironically he does have an MBA although it was in the pre-quant MBA era; Berkeley-Haas is proud to claim him), but I disagree with his suggestion that background, product knowledge, or management style (he advocates an autocratic style) are predictors of CEO performance and behavior. Lou Gerstner did not know anything about computers when he brought IBM back from the near dead and Allan Mulally had no background in automobiles when he took over Ford. And I don’t believe that having an MBA or being in finance necessarily means that you are short-term focused or insensitive to customer demands.

Instead, in my view, a gifted CEO needs two qualities, and I believe that these come with birth, and not training. They are executive talent and strategic judgment.

Executive talent. Executives need a broad range of talent; excelling on a few dimensions is rarely enough. A truly gifted CEO should have a good feel for selecting, motivating, and evaluating people; developing and selling a strategy; creating an inspiring culture; developing an organizational structure and management process that work for the strategy; fostering cooperation across silos; understanding and using financial measures; and an understanding of how marketing, branding, finance, production, distribution contribute to strategy. With the right talent and DNA, a CEO who is missing background in some of these areas will quickly pick it up.

Strategic judgment. Some people just have a flare for good judgment — whether it is an ability to identify issues, distill facts, or develop instincts to make sound strategic decisions — and others simply do not. This too, in my opinion, is something you are born with. In my field, I see many who have deep experience in branding but relatively few that have a strategic flare. It can be improved but it cannot be created.

There are many with the talent and judgment to be successful CEOs that never get the opportunity to learn, to have the right experience, or to prove themselves. But, in my view, those that lack those qualities will not be successful no matter what background, training, experience, or mentoring they might have.

Both tap into a person’s ability to imagine a preferred future.  Both are useful and should be utilized in personal development.  Dreams however do not represent anything other than a preferred future.  Vision on the other hand better represents what a person sees in their future and what a person is willing to rearrange their life to pursue.  All people have dreams, few have vision.  The difference is intentionality.

Recently, I had my feet up on my desk which I usually use to indicate to the world that I am in my “thinking big” mode.  (The only problem is, I work by myself most of the time…).  As I was pondering some options for my career, I suddenly realized that mediocrity is an option, as compared to finishing well.

In other words, I can work hard, lower my standards, and live an average life.  I’m not sure if I’m a late bloomer, but that was the first time that I had ever considered the fact that most leaders I know did not finish well.  They settled for something less than their full potential.

I made a very conscious decision that day to push myself and put myself in situations where my best was called upon.  I simply cannot stand the thought of finishing my life less than what I am fully capable of doing.  I have found it helpful to consistently ask myself this question:

“Is there any area of my life where I am settling for mediocrity?”

When I find myself with an answer that I don’t like I try to come up with at least one very clear action step that will demonstrate to myself that I am serious about finishing well.

Self leadership comes at price but it is worth the investment.

On average, I spend 8-10 hours each week discussing practical solutions with clients who have a deep desire to finish their lives well.  This includes both their personal life and their professional life.  My general profile of people who seek out leadership coaching are men and women who are fairly successful but who feel that they are losing their edge and are repulsed with the idea of mediocrity or settling for something less than their potential.

Each person bears the responsibility for stewarding their one and only life and focusing daily on finishing well.

Backstage with Seth Godin from Michael Hyatt on Vimeo.