Leadership Focus and Influence

You're here because you have already achieved some outer success and reached your current executive leadership position. But growth doesn't have to stop here. There is a thrill and satisfaction in challenging yourself, stretching and seeing how much you can achieve. Have an impact and make a contribution.

The talents, skills and tools that have got you to this point will not necessarily take you further. Or the approaches you've used to achieve this success may have been expensive in terms of time, energy, stress and effect on your relationships. You need new or upgraded power tools to make sure you can sustain or advance your position more easily.

The High-Performance Executive Newsletter introduces these tools, so that you can level up, as video-gamers would say. It draws on many areas of solid research into high-performance in business, including neuroscience, psychology, physiology, trauma therapy and flow-state study.

The three essential areas for high performance are neuro-regulation (to get and stay calm), clear the negative self-talk and the beliefs that create them (including imposter syndrome), and create new success habits.

This week we're looking at productivity, focus and influence for high performers.

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Focus and Influence

High performance in business includes being efficient, productive and making an impact when communicating with others.

In chasing efficiency, you might try multi-tasking - doing two or more things at the same time. Such as writing an email while you're on the phone to someone. After all, you're doing two things at once, it sounds so efficient.

"To do two things at once is to do neither" Publilius Syrus (85-42 BC)

However, modern neuroscience research has shown that multi-tasking is not more efficient and proves Publilius Syrus's claim from over 2000 years ago.

Multi-tasking is an illusion, in fact.

But it does feel possible. Here's why.

Concentrate on your left hand. You will automatically tune out the sounds around you, like traffic or music. You'll lose sight of the text on your screen, and you'll no longer be aware of the sensation of pressure on your body from sitting or standing.

When you 'pay attention', you choose to focus on something specific. In that moment, this becomes the centre of your attention.

The price that you 'pay' for that attention is that everything else around you loses focus.

It feels like your conscious mind has switched off from all this background activity.

However, your body continues to take in all the physical information around you, which your brain's sensory cortex is continually monitoring and storing.

This part of the brain processes sensory information simultaneously, it never switches off but processes the data while you direct your conscious thoughts elsewhere.

We mistake this involuntary processing for multi-tasking. It seems like you can focus on two things at the same time.

While we can do two physical things at the same time, like walk and chew gum, we can't think about two things simultaneously.

Conscious attention is an aspect of the thinking part of the brain, the neocortex, and sadly it only has one channel.

This means, in reality, you can only focus on one thing at a time.

When you try to focus on two things at the same time, you are simply switching your attention rapidly from one thing to another. Very rapidly.

Attempting to multi-task is ultimately counterproductive in our busy working lives.?Let me explain.

Losing Information

We've all done this: you're writing an email and your phone rings.?You answer the call and begin a conversation while still trying to write that email.

The first problem is that when you switch from one focus to another, your mind 'blinks' in its attention. During this attentional blink, a gap forms in the information you're trying to absorb.

You then find yourself re-reading the same line in the email because you didn't take it all in the first time. Or perhaps you miss something that was said on the phone. At best, you have to ask the caller (or your client or boss!) to repeat it, or at worst, miss an important detail.

Additionally, you have a lag in your processing of information since your short-term memory takes a little while to recall the details of the email. All in all, this makes your attempt at multi-tasking less efficient than if you focused on one job followed by the other.

Increased Stress

Every attention flip when you're trying to multi-task gives you a little mental jolt as you switch your focus.

The attentional blink requires your brain to work harder to catch up. It's akin to being on guard and looking out for danger.

The buzz you might get from this so-called multi-tasking activity is not from a sense of accomplishment but actually the result of an increase in anxiety!

Overloading your attention span causes you to make simple errors, such as forgetting people's names, and leads to diminished self-control.

Constant mental stress overloads the nervous system with adrenaline and cortisol and increases anxiety and worry which can eventually lead to burnout.

By contrast, focusing intensely on a single task has a calming effect on the brain.

A great example of this is the effect of meditation with a single-pointed focus on your breath. Your mind is calmed, slows and opens to be more creative.

The peak-performance flow state, prized in both athletics and business, is also a result of one single focus. You cannot reach the flow state with split attention.

Influencing others

Feeling worthy and valued is the most significant things we need emotionally as human beings. The smallest of distractions, dressed up as multi-tasking, can reveal more about us than we know.

How many times are we guilty of the following everyday multi-tasking sin? You're in conversation with a colleague or team member and your phone beeps as you receive a text. For the briefest of moments, you glance at your phone.?

Your glance says loud and clear that the text (and by implication the sender) is more important than the person you're talking to. That's why it's so irritating when you're the one left hanging; we're effectively told we're unimportant.?A terrible way to conduct work relationships all round.

Instead, ignoring that text and giving the person in front of you your fullest attention tells them that you value them. This action alone is a hallmark of great leadership.

Consider the leader who doesn't look up, but continues typing when a team member needs to talk to them. Before long, the team member may stop talking, because it's clear they're not being listened to.

One CEO confided in me that he used to conduct his executive team meetings while responding to emails, saying 'Keep talking, I'm listening'. But his listening was partial and superficial. His actions showed his team they were not important in his eyes, however unintentionally.

By believing that multi-tasking was making him more efficient, he was inadvertently devaluing his team. When that behaviour propagates through the company, as it inevitably does, then job satisfaction and morale decrease across the whole company.

The Solution

Make people feel valued by freely giving them your 'undivided attention'. Giving someone your undivided attention means listening without distraction, and finally giving up on the illusion that we gain something by multi-tasking.

By maintaining a single focus of attention, you comprehend tasks and information faster and consequently perform better. You're calmer and are less stressed.

Most importantly, you foster good working relationships that build strong, connected and high-performing teams. When you are fully present with your colleagues, team and clients, you observe more about them – their body language, facial micro-expressions, their tone of voice and choice of words. You have more information about how your communication is received, and you can adapt accordingly.

Your communication becomes more effective, powerful and influential. And being fully present increases your charisma too.

Here are some ways to kick multi-tasking habit into touch and to keep everyone's mind on the business to hand:

-??????In all your meeting rooms, make sure there's a phone basket off to one side in which everyone places their phone, set to airplane mode, before the meeting starts. This sets the tone for a clear focus and a feeling of inclusion and respect for colleagues from the outset.

-??????Move away from your screen and silence your phone when someone comes into your office to talk to you. This demonstrates that you value them and they are important. Feeling valued by the boss is a great contributor to job satisfaction and high performance in your team.

-??????Undertake one mental activity at a time. This is the most efficient use of your brain and works with its natural design. Even if you divide your work into 10-minute blocks when you're very busy, that's more effective and less stressful than trying to multi-task.

Ultimately, the idea that multi-tasking is more efficient needs to be thrown in the bin and discarded for the modern myth that it is.

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What I’ve loved (re-read) this week:

Focus by Daniel Goleman

This book is your in-depth look into the anatomy of attention, self-awareness and reading others, neuroscience of excellence and quality leadership.

I would recommend this book again (and I have!) as essential reading for leaders looking to perform at their highest levels of efficiency, impact and influence.

If you can't already tell, I'm a huge fan of Daniel Goleman's books!

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An action step you can do today…

Increasing presence

There is a skill in exactly how to be fully present with somebody, or with your work.

First, of course, don't attempt to do anything else at the same time. But you can also be distracted by thoughts or emotions, so this body scan exercise will bring you more present.

Connect with being here and now by tuning in to the physical sensations in your body. Breathe slowly and deeply. You’re regulating your nervous system to create a sense of calm.

Starting from the top of your head, close your eyes and deliberately relax your muscles. Imagine the top of your head getting softer and heavier. Then relax your face – forehead, eyes, jaw, mouth ears and chin.

Carry on scanning through your body slowly, relaxing each part as your attention moves down your body.

?Breathe slowly and deeply throughout this relaxation wave, all the way down to your feet.

Then open your eyes and look at everything around you as if you’ve seen it for the first time.

You are here and now, fully present in this space.

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We'll cover more on productivity in future issues.

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I’m Dr Tara Halliday, Imposter Syndrome Specialist.

I’ve been a holistic therapist and high-performance coach for over 21 years.

I'm the creator of the premium Inner Success for Execs programme - the fastest and best solution to imposter syndrome.

My book, Unmasking: The Coach’s Guide to Imposter Syndrome was an Amazon #1 bestseller in 2018.

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Check out the Inner Success for Execs programme for fast 'up levelling' of your internal leadership tools.

https://www.completesuccess.co.uk

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Have an excellent, refreshing and recharging weekend!

Tara

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