Focus Archive - Page 4 of 8 - The Art of Communicating

Running out of time

If you know what you’re talking about, there will always be more interesting things to say than you have time to say them.

The common approach is to try anyway and fit as much of it into the talk as possible.

And it makes sense, doesn’t it?

In a way, yes.

But then again, how well does it work usually?

It risks overwhelming your audience …
… or you run out of time on stage because it took longer than the speaker expected.

I bet you’ve seen it just as often as I have.

Ultimately, it means that either the audience or time will decide on what sticks.

That’s why I think a better approach is to do the exact opposite:
Put in as few things as possible.

Put in the things that your audience absolutely has to understand.

Start with only one thing.
(Yes, only one thing!)

What is the most important thing that your audience needs to understand?

And then put in the second most important thing.

And the third.

Until you hit the time limit.

That way, what will be left out, will be the least important things (obviously) – and you’re in control of what that is.

(Btw, it will also usually make for a much more focused and engaging talk.)

Less

We often default to adding more details to clarify our points. But did you ever notice how more details sometimes lead to even more confusion?

When more won’t help, less might. Yet, seldom do we consider subtracting an aspect or two to stop the confusion.

Have you experienced that?

Your relationship with focus

Focusing hurts.

Especially for people who deeply care about what they do and who spend what feels like every waking hour thinking about their idea.

Part of the reason why they are so good at what they do is that they care for the details. They pick up every stone and look behind every corner.

What they find can be fascinating, sometimes opening up a whole new branch of possibilities.

For these people, it can hurt to let go of these possibilities.

And yet, it’s essential …

for yourself, so you don’t loose yourself in the details and get distracted with stuff that would ultimately lead you off track,
for your team, so everyone’s pulling in the same direction which allows you to build something extraordinary that you can actually be known for,
for your audience so that they can have a position in their mind that they know you for and can pass that story along.

Nevertheless, it hurts.

Which is why it takes courage. The courage to make a choice: What exactly is the focus?

One realization made the choice easier for me: The fact that if you don’t choose, someone else will.

It could be your team, your customers, your audience.

Or it could be time.

Basically, if you’re not making the choice you’re delegating it.

That’s not what I want.

What’s your relationship with focus?

The only one

Right now, nothing is more important than you.
That’s the feeling that great communicators will give you.

Not only in 1:1 conversations, but also on the stage and even in their writing.

Right now, nothing is more important than you.

Which is not to be confused with:
“Never is anything more important.”

But right in this moment, nothing is.

These people let us forget that
-> they are just as busy as we are (if not more),
-> that they juggle just as many balls as we do (if not more),
-> that their day sucked big time and their lunch break is already one hour late (if not more).

But right now, none of that matters.

They are super busy. And yet, in this moment, they are fully present.

They don’t necessarily leave everything aside for us. We’re not the center of their focus all the time. They might not even have much time for us. But when they do, they’re fully committed and present in the moment.

Sometimes, you could even say that the feeling is not so much one of being the most important person in their world right now. It almost feels like you’re the only one that matters.

How focussed are you on the person you are talking to?

A Superpower

Almost nothing is important.
And yet, the Universe is on a mission to make us believe it was.

If you’re leading an organization, you’re bombarded with tons of information and decisions and each one of ’em likes to suggest that it’s rather important.

But from a distance, in that huge pile of stuff, most things aren’t that big a deal. Don’t you agree?

That email? It can wait.
That third bullet point on slide 15? Nobody would have missed it.
That new study that’s all over social media? It’s not even relevant to our scale.

To say it straight: Most things are utterly unimportant.

Treating them as if they were important distracts not only you but the whole team from what really matters.

I think that’s one of the main aspects of lighting the path. To arrive at a clear (and joint) understanding of what’s truly important and what’s not.

So that you can focus on the former and keep the latter from distracting you.

Once you become used to it, it can become hard to bear it when people obsess over unimportant stuff.

Now, this may sound like you wouldn’t care for the details and only the big picture. But I think it’s the opposite.

When the detail matters, you deeply care for getting them right. It’s going to make a huge difference.

But if you let the details of stuff that doesn’t even matter distract you, well it’s going to hold your team back from making a difference.

A bit of a mess

You’ve started with the best of intentions. You’ve chased opportunities and kept doors open. You’ve been a good listener and tried to fulfill the wishes of your customers and your team.

But then – before you even notice it – you find yourself in a bit of a mess. Initiatives begin to overlap, priorities clash, and what was once a structured strategy begins to resemble a haphazard scramble.

You’ve committed to one “yes” too many. You’ve crossed the line to becoming aimless. You’ve essentially become lost.

When leaders frequently bypass saying “no”, they inadvertently plunge their teams into a whirlpool of confusion. Each “yes” is not merely an affirmation; it’s a commitment of time, energy, and resources.

Worse, this inability to set boundaries and make selective decisions blurs the team’s vision. Instead of a clear path lit by intention and strategy, the route becomes foggy, littered with detours and distractions. The light that should guide the path dims, causing uncertainty and doubt to creep in.

For some, saying “no” feels easy. But for most of us, it’s not. But leadership is not about embracing every opportunity. It’s about making choices that align with the team’s vision. Saying “no” is an instrument of clarity that allows teams to focus on what truly matters and keep the light focused on their path.

Choosing “no”

A “no” to excessive jargon is an embrace of clear, straightforward language that every listener, regardless of their background, can understand.

A “no” to redundant meetings is a commitment to purposeful collaboration.

A “no” to information overload is a commitment to prioritize, ensuring clarity over clutter.

A “no” to lengthy emails signals respect for the recipient’s time and attention.

A “no” to generic statements is a push for specificity, ensuring that feedback, directions, and insights are meaningful and actionable.

A “no” to speaking without listening underlines that everyone’s on the team for a reason.

A “no” to speaking for the sake of speaking ensures that when words are spoken, they carry weight and relevance.

“No” is a choice.

In the vast sea of words and information, sometimes what you choose not to say or include makes what you do communicate all the more powerful. As leaders, embracing these principles can elevate our communication, making every interaction more meaningful and impactful.

Keep lighting the path!

The double-edged “yes”

Hidden within every “yes”, there’s an implicit “no”.

Steve Jobs famously said that he was as proud of the things he hasn’t done as he is about those he did do. For him, saying “no” to many ideas meant that he had more time to focus on the things that deeply mattered to him and that he really did say “yes” to.

It’s an insight we tend to forget. Saying “yes” to one thing means saying “no” to all the things you could be doing instead of the thing you said “yes” to.

Saying “yes” often feels like the most harmonious response. Whether it’s agreeing to a colleague’s project proposal, accepting a social invitation, or undertaking a new responsibility, a “yes” can carry a world of positivity and opportunity.

But every choice has an opportunity cost. Each time we say “yes” to one endeavor, we are (consciously or unconsciously) saying “no” to another. Agreeing to work late on a project means declining the family dinner. Accepting an invitation for dinner with Tom means we can’t go out with Tim. These implicit “nos” often go unrecognized, but they have a profound impact on our time, priorities, and overall well-being.

Every “yes” is not just an acceptance, but also a decline of alternative possibilities. But is that what you really want?

Getting awareness of this duality allows us to be more deliberate in our choices and ensure that when we do say “yes”, it’s to the things that align most closely with our values and objectives.

Embracing “no” is not about becoming negative or closed-off. Rather, it’s about recognizing the interconnected nature of our decisions and the implicit trade-offs within them. It’s about making the unconscious conscious and empowering ourselves to choose with greater clarity.

How do you choose?

The chaos around us

The tricky thing about distractions is that they don’t always present themselves as such. In many cases, they come disguised as opportunities. A new job offer, a side project, or a shiny new tool can all seem like positive turns to take. Yet, when looked at from the perspective of our core objectives and values, it often becomes evident that these are divergences rather than enhancements.

Add to that the constant ping of social media notifications, the allure of new ideas, or the changing tides of opportunity and responsibility, and it almost feels like the Universe is conspiring to destroy clarity as soon as we arrive at it. A merciless endeavor on the Universe’s part that requires an equally merciless endeavor on our part to maintain focus and alignment with our goals.

Being able to clearly articulate the goals – and ideally, being able to explain them to others – can be an important step in refusing to allow the Universe to divert us from our path.

While we can’t control all that happens around us, we can control our reaction to it. We can decide to say “no” to opportunities when they are not aligned with our objectives or values. And we can strive to stay in control irrespective of the chaos around us.

Prioritizing is a pain.

But only when it’s about you.

In fact, it’s often super easy to do for others. When we listen to someone explain their struggles, we tend to know quickly what they should focus on.

But for ourselves? That’s super hard. It means letting go of opportunities and it invites failure: What if it’s the wrong priority? What about the external driving forces? There are bills to pay. Customers to satisfy. Employees to care for. Also, there’s this new trend that would open up great new opportunities and potentially skyrocket parts of our business.

But the bitter truth is this: If we don’t prioritize then someone else will do it for us. And if it’s not someone, it’s time. The one thing we can be certain of is that there are always going to be more things to do than we’ve got time to do them.

Basically, if we don’t prioritize we’re delegating the decision. If that’s not what you want, then you’ll have to make the decision yourself.

What makes it harder than it should be is when we think that our decision would be final. That it would need to be the right decision.
It doesn’t.

There’s always the possibility to change course. Revise our decision. Use new data to make a new decision.

Here are 10 thoughts that might help you with finding your focus for now: https://michaelgerharz.com/focus.

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