Zoning Your Focus
“I should have been on top of this long before now,” Andrew Bart said with an undertone of regret.
There was more to that regret than what could be seen by a surface surfer. The deeper issue, one under the surface, was that of a potential loss of a precious personal relationship. And, while a friend’s lack of work performance was beyond debate, Andrew’s ever-present focus on strengthening rapports was foremost on his mind. It was important to him to keep his relationship with a close friend and collogue, of more than twenty-years, intact.
“What are you talking about?” I quickly responded. “You were on top of it! Have you forgotten the action you took, months ago, to personally step-in to focus on this area of the business?”
Andrew, like the rest of us, is often burdened with having a focus fixed on being the harshest of self-critics. That doesn’t mean he, and we, don’t make mistakes. It’s just that humans tend to be focused on personal faults while viewing most other things as blurred, background reality. And, the capacity to adjust this natural focus is rare.
“Thank you,” Andrew said just before saying, “this year I’m going to zone my focus.”
He then went on to explain his coming-year’s business plan by initially describing his relief at having already completing the hard thing. A lack of performance discussion with his close friend and colleague.
“It went better than I feared,” he started. “He knew this was the first time he’d let me down and he apologized. Then, we agreed to reassign him to a more suitable position in the company. I’m so relieved to have been able to maintain our relationship while keeping his talent with our company moving forward.”
That new focus, subsequently outlined by Andrew, became possible as a result of clearing the distortion of conquering the hard thing first. It allowed him to seek additional clarity. First, he recognized the value of his business’ existing attributes. Which allowed him to diagnose a lack of need to create any new products at this time. Second, he created a new plan to use existing products more effectively. Third, he was able to reorganize the company to turn those assets into meaningful returns.
“I should have been on top of this long before now,” Andrew said, just before he was reminded of how ably he’d stepped up, while failing to recognize his own success and focus. Then, he had the courage to do the hard thing first. Doing so opened the way to it find additional clarity, so he could recognize opportunity.
“This year we’re focusing on our zone,” Andrew said of his described process. A practice you can I can put to work in our own lives.
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