When you’re a leader, it’s good to be laser-focused. Right?
Not necessarily. In today’s information-overloaded world, the scale can often tip too far toward being overfocused. And this can get in the way of problem solving and innovation.
When you’re overfocused, your attention is zoomed in too closely on matters that are either not critical in the long run or not the root cause of the issue, such as a minor error in a report or a comment in a meeting. This uses up valuable energy and attention that can — and should — be used for more important issues.
Rachel, a program manager in a real estate development company I worked with, started nine years ago, long before many of her colleagues. Because of that, she was quite knowledgeable about the industry, the company, workflow and past projects. She was quick to notice errors in the details of her colleague’s work. She particularly recoiled if employees were unedited in what they said to clients. To rectify these issues, Rachel stepped in personally and took on much of the work herself. Often, she worked at the office late into the evening.
Rachel was overfocused on these details. In trying to fix the situation herself, she was headed toward burnout. Being overfocused can be overwhelming, which can be paralyzing.
I asked Rachel: “What if you brought your ‘spotlight’ to growing the company in ways that would last and be sustainable?” By sustainability, I meant contributing to developing other staff members’ skills and preparing them for additional responsibilities. She thought about that new way of looking at the issue. She zoomed out and took in a wider context. She could see that judging others, correcting their mistakes and taking on work outside of her scope was not achieving the real goal she had: to produce a great result.
Instead, if she considered the future of the company, staff needed to learn more and develop their skills. When she zoomed into the details, it was holding her back from solving more important, bigger-picture problems, such as strategy, innovation and process redesign to improve outcomes.
When leaders catch themselves in the weeds, worried about the details to the exclusion of context and strategy, they need to recognize it and zoom out. Conversely, when they are operating at the 10,000-foot level, they may be too zoomed out to provide effective direction and problem solving. Instead, the ability to gain a new perspective enhances the ability to provide the right level of leadership.
To zoom out from an overfocused perspective, I recommend taking the following actions:
Use a metaphorical videocam.
Imagine you are viewing the situation with a video camera. When zoomed in too tightly, you’ll find that you’re inspecting it as if it’s under a powerful microscope. That may bring you to notice irritating details, such as errors in a report or financial projections. Those are important issues, but may not be the most important. Now try zooming out using a wider lens so that you see the bigger picture around it. What do you learn? You may then notice that a report was generally an accurate representation of work that had been done or that an error in financial projections reflected poor skills or a lack of understanding. Those issues need your leadership attention more, as they are more leveraged. Addressing them matters more.
Alter your timeline.
Another way to zoom in is along a timeline. Zoom into the future and look back on the issue a year from now. What importance will it hold? How does that alter the way you are thinking about it? How does that altered timeline open up options? Taking the long view, what actions are called to mind to take on today?
Change lenses.
Try viewing the situation from a fresh perspective by reflecting on it through four different lenses, shifting back and forth occasionally from one lens to another. There are four lenses through which leaders tend to view situations: thinking, acting, feeling and witnessing.
Rachel was using the Think lens, which is natural and commonly the first way of thinking that leaders consider. Logically, some comments staff had made were inappropriate. Logically, mistakes had been made. When she shifted to the Act lens, she was able to zoom out from the task list she had assumed and offer training to others so they could take on those tasks, rather than being the only one with the institutional knowledge and sufficient expertise to pick up on mistakes. She started holding informal lunch meetings to tell stories of successful customer experiences from the past.
When Rachel shifted to the Feel lens, she realized that she was too zoomed in on her own frustrations. When she zoomed out, she could see that her overfocus and overwork was causing her to be short tempered and judgmental of others. When she thought about zooming out from her feeling, she reminded herself that she wanted to create a department culture that encouraged questions and curiosity, because that’s the only way her staff could learn, demonstrate independent thinking and then take on more responsibilities.
These steps will allow you to access new insights into the scenario you are overfocused on, change your approach and tackle what’s truly important.
This article was written by Janet Britcher of Transformation Management, and originally appeared on Forbes.com: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/03/20/the-pitfalls-of-being-overfocused-as-a-leader/#6cee09cbf097