Focus or Flounder: How to Leverage Concentrated Effort for Maximum Performance

Can you imagine walking into a hospital for surgery, and the surgeon comes into the room and starts to act as if they are doing surgery by shining a flashlight? Or picture a bomb coming in off of a plane, and the military shines a flashlight at the bomb to try to stop it. Or imagine walking into a machine shop and trying to cut a piece of metal with a flashlight. All of these examples are ridiculous because a flashlight is a broad beam. However, a laser, which is actually the same thing since it is light, is light that is focused. And that focus makes the difference in how much power it has. A lead can either be a flashlight or a laser.

Flashlight Leadership vs. Laser Leadership

A flashlight leader’s focus is broad and diffused. The leader uses a lot of energy and spreads it out. However, a leader that is a laser takes all of that energy and puts it on something important. Here are five ways you can focus your energy and intention to be the most effective leader you can be.

How to leverage concentrated effort for maximum performance

1. First, find something you love doing.

It is very hard to focus when you hate what you are doing. I recently read an article on the research of the top five jobs that people hate. Can you imagine having one of those jobs and trying to stay focused? But when you find something that is compelling and that you love to do, it is easier to stay focused. If this is not possible, look for redeeming aspects of your job or task.

2. Define your VIPs (Very Important Priorities).

I like to go shooting at the gun range, but picture what it would be like to have five people shooting at once but with no targets. It would be chaotic and dangerous because everyone would be lacking focus. But once you put a target up, it gives people the ability to focus their energy, focus their concentration, and aim for it. The same thing happens when you have defined VIPs (Very Important Priorities). People sometimes fear selecting a only few priorities because they do not know what to select or fear missing something. But remember, having VIPs does not stop you from being flexible and nimble. They can always be modified or changed later.

3. Limit your daily diet of information.

We have a greater challenge today than we did when I was growing up. We used to only have six television stations, three newspaper options, and about four radio stations. That wasn’t always great, but picture what we face now:

Over 1,700 TV stations
200 streaming services
Over 200 radio stations
Over 2 million podcasts and 48 million episodes

When you take all of that information and add it to the seminars and books out there, you can see why it is easy for leaders to become overwhelmed or distracted. I’m not saying that you should not be learning and pursuing information, but I am saying that you need to limit your diet.

4. Reduce activity addiction.

We live in a culture where there is nonstop activity, and I have met a lot of leaders who are activity addicts and fear missing out. There is nothing wrong with having hobbies, going to seminars, golfing, shooting at the gun range, participating in sports leagues, going to professional sports games or concerts, or spending time at a shore house. All of that is fine, but there is a lot of wisdom in the ancient proverb that says, “Chase two rabbits and both will escape.” Sometimes we as leaders are chasing eight rabbits, and we capture none of them due to hindered focus and decreased performance. If you want to focus, you have to limit your addiction to activity.

5. Guarding against inattentional blindness.

Inattentional blindness is when we become so focused on what is in front of us, that we lose our peripheral vision and no longer see what else is important. This is one of the dangers of hyper-focusing. Researchers at Harvard University ran an experiment where they had 24 radiologists look for a nodule in a lung scan. The researchers placed an image of a gorilla inside the scan, and despite the gorilla image being much larger than a nodule, it was missed by 83% of the radiologists! Some people mistakenly think focus means looking only at one thing. But to be a focused leader, you need to also make sure you maintain your peripheral vision.

Remember, leaders who focus accomplish more.

Jay Desko is the CEO of The Center Consulting Group and brings experience in the areas of organizational assessment, leadership coaching, decision-making, and strategic questioning. Jay’s degrees include an M.Ed. in Instructional Systems Design from Pennsylvania State University and a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and Leadership from The Union Institute.