A number of interesting posts and one recent e-mail have conspired to remind me that one of a leader's most important jobs is bringing focus to an organization. Here's a bit about each, and links to the full posts.
After reading an article I sent him, a friend of mine responded with an email message about some of the frustrations he encounters in his consulting work. He said,
"Success (how ever it’s defined) clearly begins with top leadership and what they explicitly envision, articulate, & clearly communicate to and for the organization....How can any organization ‘succeed’ if ‘top level’ leadership has no clear focus? "
Bob Sutton wrote a great blog about the "Otis Redding" problem. You need to read his blog to get the full impact of the story, but the upshot is this: if your team has so many goals and measures that they don't know what really counts, they are going to be "sittin' on the dock of the bay, wastin' time."
Jim Estill often writes about focus, and did so again today. I subscribe to Jim's post mainly for his focus on focus. Check it out.
Another of my favorite bloggers, Lora Banks, wrote recently about a coaching summit she attended. Of the many speakers she saw and heard, she was most taken by Thach Nguyen, who said,
"You attract into your life whatever you give your energy, focus and attention to, whether you want it or not." Again - focus.
Wandering around the blogosphere looking for more posts about focus, I found Bill Waddell's post about the five golden metrics in manufacturing Lean - total cost, total cycle time, delivery performance, quality and safety. Bill said,
"Manufacturing performance is optimized when management recognizes that there are five golden metrics – five measures of value stream performance that really matter – and all other measurements are subordinate."
Finally, as I explain in my post about employee engagement, the Gallup Organization has found that one of the twelve keys to an engaged workforce is making expectations crystal clear.
There really is no way around this one. If you want to lead at any level, you must, must, must choose a very few things to focus on - and focus on them relentlessly.
(9 Sep revision: removed duplicate quote by Thach Nguyen.)
