What can businesses learn from the (unexpected) greatest hunter on earth?

Lions, tigers and bears? Oh my, there are so many business analogies and metaphors around these amazing natural hunters — and for compelling reasons. We all want to be the “king of the beasts” in our competitive circle and bring the “eye of the tiger” to everything we do.

So why is the world’s greatest hunter left off the list of popular business metaphors? It’s not the beasts of lore, nor is it the great white shark or any other predator that first comes to mind. While great hunters, all of these animals fail as much as (or more than) they succeed at capturing their prey. When it comes to consistent, effective predatory performance it’s the dragonfly that truly is the master of its domain. According to scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia, these seemingly innocent insects successfully capture their prey an astounding 95 percent of the time. Imagine if your business was able to succeed at 95 percent of what it goes after! 

Let’s look at the dragonfly for lessons on success. What can we learn from these flitting insects that applies to the business world?

Outstanding Vision. Dragonflies are blessed with superior eyesight and the ability to detect dark spots in the sky that others can’t. They leverage this unique ability to head in the right direction toward their desired outcome.

As a business, having a clear sense of direction and building a future predicated on what will be rather than what is today is crucial to ensure your company is heading toward opportunity. Like the dragonfly, it’s imperative to recognize what you are absolutely the best at, create a clear plan around how to best leverage that difference and ensure all of your organizational energy is focused squarely in the same direction to exploit it fully and effectively.

Great Teamwork. Dragonfly wings are powered by thousands of individually operating muscles, which work in close concert to propel the insect toward its prey. This gives them tremendous dexterity; however, it is the dragonfly’s ability to integrate all of these discrete, individual muscular actions that enable it to buzz rapidly towards its goal. 

Businesses often struggle with this from two perspectives: some exert tight control in a way that stifles creative problem solving within their teams, while others struggle with too many individual agendas that lead to lots going on but little to show for it. The key to great teamwork — harnessing the power of every individual muscle on your team — comes down to four tenets. 

1. Have the right people in the right seats, who are confident in each other and put real issues on the table
2. Ensure everyone is on board with your clear, compelling vision
3. Communicate consistently, and often, to the entire organization
4. Encourage independence through real accountability

Incredible focus. Wayne Gretsky, who famously advised skating to where the puck is going rather than where it is, would have been one hell of a dragonfly. The insect’s ability to focus on its short-term outcomes enables it to leverage a complex hunting strategy that directs it to where their prey is going or will be, rather than where it is. 

This ability to drown out the “noise” and focus on the immediate goals is one of the most difficult things for businesses to accomplish. Surprisingly, only in the past century did the word “priority” become something we use in the plural. In fact, the more “priorities” your business has, the less each one actually matters. Carefully choose what’s most important, ensuring the few most important things are the ones that get the attention and leverage a desire to do less in order to do each one of those better. It’s an acute focus like this that enables the dragonfly to succeed nearly every time. Imagine your business accomplished the most important three things every quarter exceptionally, instead of getting middling results on ten things. Which of those scenarios will position you for greater success?

These are the key traits that enable the dragonfly to achieve one of the highest predatory success rates, and the same principals can help your business drive more success, too.  

So, while it’s OK to admire lions, tigers and bears – all hail the mighty dragonfly!

Scott Elser is CEO of Digital Current, one of the Southwest's leading digital agencies, and a Professional EOS Implementer? working to help entrepreneurial companies get more of what they want from their business.