FOCUS SHAPES CONTRIBUTIONS
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Supporting executives to become better leaders or directors.
Where do you focus, what influences this choice, what are your focus words and how does your focus serve you?
Whether you are part of an executive team, in the c-suite or have joined the boardroom, one thing is certain, where you focus your attention and what you listen for, shapes your contributions.
Organisations need people who can read the marketplace sufficiently to synergise what it means for their business (direction); prioritise what needs to be done (focus); know what they need to do within, across, and outside the organisation to achieve this (connectivity); manage roadblocks and risks (governance); set and monitor the right performance (evaluates); lead with positive impact with his or her own teams (engagement); and shape the organisational tone, behaviour, conversation and reputation (cultural custodian).
They value pluralistic leaders who have balance and flexibility in their leadership style or know how to build teams based on complementary strengths, who are not parochial and see the business more as a connected system, where one function’s outputs are another’s inputs and leadership spans various boundaries.
Organisations look for: business acumen, strategic thinking, an ability to identify talent and build a unified team, ‘doing’ as well as thinking and planning; knowing when to change or innovate, tolerance for, and the management of, risk; co-operation across silos, influencing and being a positive influence; clear and confident communication; dealing well with conflict; being well-adjusted and willing to learn.
How is an individual meant to navigate this organisational workscape?
Focus on ‘context’
Context is the sum of all the conclusions, experiences and interpretations that people in the organisation have reached. Context is the formula for success – and limits. It determines culture, social networks and webs of power. It colours thinking on what is possible and the choices that can be made. It shapes who gets to exercise authority, take up roles and participate.
Know why you are in the role, for what purpose and with what expectations.
Focus on the ‘why’
Why do you do what you do?
Why do you feel energised or drained?
Why do you respond in certain ways? Is it based on:
what you listen for in the role, day-to-day?
what actions are you likely to take based on that listening?
what is the payoff (especially psychological) that you seek?
Focus on the ‘what’
What am I really paid to do?
Do I work on what matters most?
What is my meaningful part to business results? and How do I prove it?
Are my strengths utilised, used with situational appropriateness and in the right context?
What are my ‘competing commitments’?
Focus on the ‘how’
Bring a forward focus by robust processes for planning, succession and oversight of risk
Encourage constructive conversations through quality debate, raising the right issues, listening effectively and ensuring quality decision making and decision taking rather than conflict
Give clear, future oriented feedback so people feel supported and encouraged to learn or change
Be present and prepared to maximise the time you have with others
Avoid groupthink by drawing out differing viewpoints
Value and be an advocate for diversity
Be human, kind and empathetic, particularly during times of change and transition
Look after your health and resilience, guard your time and the demands of others.
Focus on relationships
Look for high-value ways to focus on enhancing the right relationships
Shape your task-drive through a people-lens
Be smarter about connections and networks
Consider the needs and perspectives of stakeholders in decision making and alliances
Focus on contributions that are valued
Applying a combined lens of personal purpose, effectiveness and organisational value pinpoints:
Personal contributions – what you are good at
Competitive contributions – what you do better than other people
Distinctive contributions – what you do that few people are good at
Strategic contributions - what you are good at, that is distinctive, competitive and enables organisational strategy.
Focus on paradoxes
Ambition paradox - leadership is a humble act undertaken by ambitious people.
Assumption paradox - decisions are made on assumptions, but our assumptions are often wrong. Intelligent people know how to solve a problem. The most astute know how not to get into the problem in the first place.
Change paradox - it was the economist Keynes who made the valid point that ‘the greatest difficulty in the world is not for people to accept new ideas, but to make them forget their old ideas.’ It can be difficult for smart people to reassess skills, behaviors or their emotional intelligence.
Competition paradox - the successful executive cannot go it alone. The marketplace requires more collaboration not less — and at the heart of collaboration is trust.
Worldview paradox - a leader has to understand multiple worldviews – and yet operate in his or her own.
Succession paradox - all leaders must plan for their own departure.
FOCUS WORDS
What are your key focus words for the coming year - in both your work and life domains - to help you think, plan and do?
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