Are you satisfied with where you are spending your time on your business?
Only ten percent of executives tell me they have the perfect balance of where they are spending their time. The other 90 percent don’t feel like they are spending enough time on longer-term strategic areas. Take a look at Focus on The Right Spot. It is my most popular visual that I draw for executives. Start by reflecting on the last three months of your work. Ask yourself where your time and energy has been focused. Has it been on customers, products, and finances of the immediate here and now? Has it been on projects and initiatives that will impact your business in three to six months time? Or has it been on your two or three year growth plan? There is such a strong gravitational pull to the bottom left-hand corner that it takes extreme focus and discipline to stay in the right zone, whether you are a board member, a CEO, or a leader.
I used to work for a leader had that discipline. Every morning Don Mattrick as CEO of Xbox thought of the three biggest issues that prevented him from growing the business and focused on those that day. He monopolized meetings to focus on the long-term goals of the business, ruthlessly and relentlessly. We learned how to make meetings more effective by building Don time into the agenda where he could share his strategic thoughts and ideas, but the executive team could still cover the topics that needed to get decided as a group. He knew how to not get sucked into the tactical day-to-day execution and stay focused on long-term strategy and give space to his team to play in the right spot too; we even redesigned his role and appointed a COO to focus on the zero to twelve-month horizon.
What can you do today to move towards your right spot?
Dedicated to growing your business,
Val