In his cover story ‘The Focused Leader’ the Harvard Business Review 2013, Goleman stresses that focus is crucial to great leadership. He argues that attention is the basis of the most essential of leadership skills–emotional, organizational, and strategic intelligence.
He reiterates that if leaders are to direct the attention of their employees toward strategy and innovation, they must first learn to focus their own attention because
- a failure to focus inward leaves one rudderless,
- a failure to focus on others renders one clueless, and
- a failure to focus outward may cause one to be blindsided.
Focused leaders can command the full range of their own attention when:
- they are in touch with their inner feelings,
- they can control their impulses,
- they are aware of how others see them, and
- they can weed out distractions and also allow their minds to roam widely, free of preconceptions.
Great leaders are great at focusing on the right thing at the right time. Even during times of change (which are inevitable) in every organization, they seem to be able to stay on the right track.
A great leader engages with other people and helps create ‘a connection’ that takes the level of motivation in all parties involved to a higher level.
A focused leader does not necessarily have to engage the brutal or
rushed intervention gear when there are issues that are contingent upon change initiatives during times of change.
In most cases, a focused leader would actively promote an organizational culture that promotes a behavior that is geared at increasing efficiency through adaptations.
