I have been thinking about focus.
Focus is essential if you want to achieve the vision you’ve set.
I am assuming that you’ve set a vision because if you haven’t, what are you working towards? If it’s not clear – and by clear – I mean written down and visible, then it’s not a vision. It is a wish.
Achieving the vision requires focus – and focus is harder to get right than people think.
The easiest test for this is to ask someone ‘What is your priority for today?’ Rarely, do people respond with one thing. They usually start to reel off a list of things with a few statements explaining how busy they are.
I think there is a real reluctance to say that you are focusing on just one thing. I think that people confuse focus with not having enough to do.
‘If I don’t tell people how busy I am, I will get given more work or be at risk from redundancy. People must know how busy I am!’
Ever noticed how busy everyone says they are?
I think that this busyness leads us to look for ‘productivity hacks’.
How can I fit more into the day? How can I make myself more efficient?
The problem with this approach is that becoming ‘efficient’ before you become ‘effective’ means you get a lot quicker at doing the wrong things.
You are working through the to do list at pace but most of the things on the list won’t help you reach your vision. Ticking things off on a to-do list feels great – but it doesn’t mean you are any closer to your destination.
The temptation to dilution is great.
Most companies set people 5-6 objectives for the year – why not just one? Why not focus the individual on doing one thing to an exceptional level?
Peter Thiel founded PayPal before going onto found several other billion dollar companies. He would get his employees to focus on one thing for the year.
If they wanted to meet and talk to him about something that wasn’t connected to the ‘one thing’ – he wouldn’t accept the meeting!
Essentialism by Greg McKeown draws out the same concept. In order to focus, you need to learn how to say ‘No’. If you aren’t regularly saying ‘No’, then you’re saying ‘Yes’ to too many things!
In the Royal Marines, we used the concept of The Main Effort when we delivered orders.
What is the one thing that we cannot afford to get wrong?
If we fail to achieve this task, we will fail our mission.
The Main Effort helps people to prioritise what is important by making it clear there is only one priority.
It allows them to understand and deliver your intent even when you are not there. There are never ‘shared’ Main Efforts like there should never be more than one priority. As soon as you have two priorities, you are creating room for indecision.
Focus creates the opportunity for depth. Depth leads to success.
I have been working with some fast-growing fintech companies recently. We talked about the importance of having a purpose and a vision.
We also talked about the importance of having a mission. What do you do and for whom?
I remind them that Amazon didn’t use to sell everything. They focused on books – ‘What are your version of the books?’ What do you need to focus on, where is the low hanging fruit?
Focus and depth applies to other areas as well. When you decide to become an entrepreneur, you start to spot opportunity everywhere.
Your eyes open to all the things that you could do. It takes real discipline to focus on the one thing, the one product or target market that will make your business successful.
This message finally landed with me when it came to networking.
People told me that networking was crucial to business so I went to networking events. I met with people, got a business card and arranged to have coffee.
I met some lovely people but when I reflected on the meetings, I thought ‘will they recommend me?’ Probably not.
There are plenty of people who do leadership development and coaching and out there – why would I be at the top of the list in their head?
I started to think about the sort of people that would recommend me and I put together a list. To get on the list, the people had to fit three criteria.
- They had to like me.
- They had to value what I offered – they needed to ‘get’ leadership.
- They needed to be a decision-maker or hold responsibility for a budget.
I then focussed on building deeper relationships with these people. If people were unresponsive, I assumed that they were too busy and they fell off the list.
When I look back at the past year and I think about what created the most opportunities for me, it was focus.
Focus leads to depth and depth leads to opportunities.
The concept of ‘niching’ your business relates to the same principle. If you focus on one group of people, you can start to tailor your marketing to appeal to those people. If you only work with one group of people, you start to become the expert and the ‘go-to’ guy in that industry.
Daniel Priestley talks about the concept of becoming Oversubscribed in his book. He’s absolutely right. If you can ‘become the expert’ – opportunity will come to you, because you are regarded as the best in that sector – the person with the most experience.
This is the process – in the right order.
- Create your Vision – What do you want to achieve and by when?
- Create your Purpose – Why do you want to achieve it? Why does it matter and why should anyone care?
- Create your Mission – What do you do and for whom?
- Get focused – drive for depth in everything that you do.
- Look for Efficiency – work out how to do more of the right stuff.
When everyone else is searching for efficiency – you’re on the path to effectiveness.