One challenging aspect of leadership is deciding, organizing, and focusing on what matters most in the daily work. Leaders often feel overwhelmed with tasks and responsibilities each day, and it feels impossible at times to make progress on anything. Until the leader revises the organization’s systems to work more effectively, they often feel immense stress when organizing their focus. Some leaders focus too broadly and try to solve every possible problem; other leaders focus too narrowly and forget the 10,000 foot view. Every leader should have a narrow focus with a big picture perspective when leading organizational change.
- Values and Goals: Individual leaders or teams should spend time deciding what values or goals really matter in their organization in order to better focus their efforts. Without a clear understanding of the larger goals, it’s challenging to narrow the focus.
- Immediate Action: Once the team specifically defines the most important goals, then leaders need to say “yes” to everything that directly relates and “no” to things that don’t. Will this task get us closer to that goal? Does this decision align with our clearly stated values? How does this initiative align with the vision of our organization?
- Reflection and Adjustments: Reflecting on whether the tasks, initiatives, or decisions align with the organization’s is an imperative and iterative process. Leaders must routinely analyze if a specific action is moving the organization closer to its end goals. Does the action need adjusting? Can we revise it slightly to get a better result?
Highly-effective leaders understand that “if everything is important, then nothing is important.” They create a narrow focus, but they align their focus with the larger vision.
How do you decide what actions really matter in daily leadership?