Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states that “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” In other words, it takes focused effort to continue taking actions on the areas of most impact. Too many leaders spend time working on areas of very little impact and neglect areas that move the organization forward. Here is a five step process for creating focus and intention:
- Identify the Goals: Creating focus for success requires developing clearly articulated goals that are measurable. Leaders should spend time developing these goals with the leadership team. The goals should be clearly communicated to the rest of the organization. How clearly are the goals developed and communicated?
- Audit the System: Creating focus for success requires consistently auditing all the systems that surround the goals. Develop a list of all the actions in the various systems. It’s critical to work with a team in order to identify the actions as some people work on different areas of the system. Outlining the actions helps everyone see the systems around the organization. How often do you list out the actions in the systems?
- Rank the Actions: Creating focus for success means ranking the most impactful actions. Start with one system and rank the most impactful actions to the least impactful. Then, move on to the next system and rank the actions again. Ranking the actions allows leaders to see what actions they should be taking more on a daily basis. How clearly can you rank the most impactful actions?
- Eliminate or Revise: Creating focus for success means eliminating or revising actions. After ranking the actions necessary for the system, then leaders should either eliminate the actions or revise them. If the action isn’t producing results, it can be eliminated or revised. The key to this stage is truly eliminating actions in order to keep the focus on results. How effectively do you eliminate or revise actions?
- Intensify the Action: Creating focus for success means intensifying and doubling down on actions that lead to results. After eliminating and revising actions, now it’s time to aggressively focus on the actions that have led to impactful results. Leaders should develop a sense of urgency around these actions and explain why they’re impactful. How consistently do you create intensity and urgency around actions?
Highly-effective leadership requires creating a sense of urgency and focus around what matters most. Many leaders take too much action on items that have very little impact. Developing and following a system for creating focus for success keeps leaders and organizations moving in the appropriate direction.
What is your system for keeping the main actions at the center of your work?