Attention Managers! - Focus Your Attention!

In today's fast-moving society it's easy to get scattered in focus and effort. The result is underperformance and missed opportunities As a manager you can achieve better results when you focus your attention.

MULTI-TAKING IS OVERRATED

Managers need to focus their attention in a few high priority areas. The "critical few," essential to management success, are the areas to concentrate on, if you want results.

Watch children at play; they can do several things at once (and have the attention span of a "gnat"). Easily distracted, kids will yell, and talk, and spin and run and play games and make up stories and chase other children-- all within a matter of minutes. But we live in an adult world where managers cannot afford to be torn in multiple directions simultaneously.

MANAGEMENT IS DIFFICULT, and it requires concentration.

Leaders who understand management select a few priorities and then expend vast amounts of energy on them. No matter what your politics, a good example of focusing attention on a few priorities was during Ronald Reagan's presidential administration. President Reagan had a few top priorities: end the "cold war," increase "patriotism," and improve the economy. Because he focused on these few "big ticket" items he enjoyed a successful presidency.

SELECT YOUR PRIORITIES.

What is critical to the success of your business (or your segment of the business)? Peter Drucker was the man who invented the term "management." Drucker felt that planning should be the top priority and that managers should focus on the external environment. He also felt marketing should be high on the list. Pick a few high "payoff" areas to concentrate on rather than spending time and energy on scores of relatively insignificant matters.

COMMUNICATE YOUR PRIORITIES.

You can't do it all by yourself, and you shouldn't try. Management is all about "getting things done through other people." If you clearly communicate your priorities to your staff, and follow-up with high levels of attention paid to those areas, you should see results. If your priorities are unclear, unimportant, or constantly changing, you will surely fail.

MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS.

How are you going to determine your progress if you don't measure results? The answer is obvious, you can't! What should you measure? How often? And, how will you set up a process? How can you be sure you are measuring the right things?

Select those areas which are essential to the growth and profitability of the enterprise, then rigorously examine them. Have your staff provide input to this process. This will help them in focusing on your, and the business, priorities so that everyone is contributing to the organization's mission and goals. Benchmark your progress by including factors which other businesses in your industry most commonly measure and report. Some things need to be constantly measured, while others can be measured less frequently. Take a look at the "cycle" for each of your measurements -from start to finish- to establish the proper timeframe for each factor. Then simplify the measurement and reporting process so that it isn't too burdensome, otherwise it will fall into disuse.

Remember, managers, --focus your attention!

by: Dr Ben A. Carlsen, MBA

Business online blog