We are forever getting diverted by interesting or irritating things. We are addicted to email, our Blackberry or our mobile phone and as a consequence are always flitting from one thing to another. The immediate is forever driving out the important. How do you cope with this relentless pressure so that you keep your focus on what is most important? This chapter looks at the sort of focus you are looking for to ensure successful action, take hard decisions and build in effective communication.
Being clear about your focus will increase your likelihood of success. At the same time, you need to guard against focus leading to being blinkered and ignoring key new information or perspectives. A rigid focus that takes no account of changing circumstances can be just as dangerous as no focus at all. Focus may need to be tempered by flexibility. You may need to review how new information and changes in circumstances affect your focus and the outcomes you are trying to achieve.
Giles was very clear what contribution he wanted from the chief executive. For him, the role of chief executive involved setting direction and vision, resolving difficult issues, steering the business, sorting out systematic issues, ensuring effective networking and partnerships both internally and externally, building a strong reputation for the business, and ensuring effective upward management of the chairperson and the board.
All of Giles' prerequisites were about the chief executive focusing effectively; he did not want a chief executive who was vague and unclear about their priorities. Giles wanted to be working for a strong leader with a clear sense of direction, but he was also conscious that a focused approach should not be inflexible. As economic and political events were likely to occur at speed, he wanted a leader who was listening carefully and was willing to adapt their approach, while being rooted in core values and clarity about the overall objectives that the business had set itself.
Claire had inherited a leadership role in an organisation where people were unenthusiastic about change. External pressures meant that change was inevitable. What was the best way of getting people on board? Should she bring a strong focus on new outcomes or would it be better to listen longer to what people had to say? Claire was conscious that she needed to ensure that people were motivated and willing to go with her. Therefore, her initial focus was going to be on recognising the need for change rather than laying down a precise prospectus at this initial stage.
Claire set out her approach, which included the following:
The world is changing, we need to be at the centre of that change. We need to be clear about the big picture and develop our direction of travel. We need to work together to get ourselves into a position where we drive change. We need to develop an even more open and collaborative way of working with other parts of the organisation and with our customers. We need to build on our success but be realistic about the inevitability of change. Change will happen whether we like it or not: we need to be leading it, and be at the forefront of change. We need to be practical in the way we ensure that we deliver the results we want. There is a role that needs filling: we must not leave a void, we must believe we have a positive contribution to make.
These examples emphasise the importance of a focus that is realistic, believable, inspirational and yet rooted in effective listening to those affected. It is important that you are able to take people with you and avoid the risk of walking the gangplank with everyone else waving you goodbye.
Allan Leighton wrote an excellent book entitled On Leadership (R H Business Books, 2007), which draws on his experience as a leader and on interviews with many chief executives. He summarises the leadership lessons from individual leaders in a few, short bullet points for each person. Many of them share a common theme of ensuring effective focus. Key leadership lessons from Philip Green (Arcadia and Bhs) are absolute focus, learn from people, don't complicate things, have the respect and trust of staff and be reliable. For James Dyson (Dyson International) the leadership lessons are never give up, make it very clear what you are doing and why you are doing it both publicly and internally, and recognise that sometimes you cannot make a big leap but only lots of little improvements that in the end add up to a big improvement.
Charles Dunstone (Carphone Warehouse) talks of creating a team that gels and a vision that everyone can believe in and ensuring a common sense of purpose throughout the organisation. For Stuart Rose (Marks & Spencer) the leadership lessons include look for heroes, doers and people who can take the ball and run with it, never be seduced by your own success or believe your own publicity, and keep your antennae switched on 24 hours a day in and out of the business.
For many successful leaders in every sector, there is an unremitting focus on outcomes and delivery. When you are clear what can make the biggest difference to success, a relentless focus on the key levers will lead to the best possible likelihood of achieving that success.
Tough decisions come in many different shapes and sizes. Any leader or manager has to make decisions about strategic direction, resourcing, communications and the management of staff. Taking hard decisions well requires a high level of focus on what you want to achieve and how you are going to get there.
It is possible to develop your capacity to make hard decisions. Here are ten key steps to help you focus on this difficult area:
Observe others making decisions and note down what they did that worked well and what worked less well.
Be objective and base decisions on firm evidence, even when that evidence is contrary to what you had previously assumed.
Understand your convictions and apply your values, intuition and trained judgement. Recognise that facts have a wider context of values and beliefs.
Build up self-knowledge, understand your own strengths and weaknesses, but don't get caught up in a spiral of self-analysis.
Learn from experience. Whatever decisions you take, note three or four learning points from each, whether a decision has gone well or badly.
Be willing to take decisions. Don't be caught up in indecision, going through the same arguments again and again.
Grow your courage, step out into the unknown and see opportunities.
Develop your communication skills and your listening, engaging and persuading skills, without falling into the trap of appearing to manipulate people.
Build sounding boards using a range of different people who have different perspectives and skills.
Obtain quality feedback given in a positive and supportive way. This can be one of the most valuable gifts you can receive.
When you have made a difficult decision it can be well worth asking yourself the following questions afterwards:
Good communication starts with listening. Building understanding, networks and partnerships involves continuous listening and engagement. Don't just focus on the eventual outcome, the final point of announcement. Success depends so much on a sequence of steps and effective focus and communication are needed at each stage.
The following questions might help you focus on the importance of communication in any decision:
Am I listening effectively to all the sources of intelligence available to me?
Am I building partnerships and alliances with the right mix of people?
Can I develop my approaches in building partnerships and consensus?
Can I strengthen my ability to engage effectively with a wide range of different people? Am I learning how best to communicate outcomes from decisions I see being taken?
Can I further develop my sources of feedback?
