NextGen Know-How: Focus and leadership

Being selective and controlling your attention are key skills of an effective leader.

Have you ever worked a long day only to feel frustrated that you didn’t get any real work done? Perhaps you dealt with constant interruptions, emergencies and issues, so you didn’t have time to make progress on your important tasks and projects. Most leaders are spending each day fighting interruptions and distractions, sitting in ineffective meetings and reacting to the problems and issues that are constantly coming their way.

A few years ago, I conducted a survey of leaders and asked what their number one challenge was at work. The most frequent response was not having enough time to get everything done. Many leaders cited that they struggled finding time to proactively manage their team, let alone get any valuable work done.

The ability to effectively plan and use your time efficiently are important skills for leadership. To be an exceptional leader, you must have time to focus on the most important areas of leadership like coaching, developing employees and getting results. This requires you to be as productive as possible with your time.

In modern society, we are constantly bombarded with information. Emails, text messages, marketing messages, blogs, social media and the internet all contribute to information overload. We feel so overwhelmed by what is in front of us that we don’t even know where to start.

 

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