Driven to Distraction
An article in our local paper recently highlighted 10 most likely distractions that cause accidents whilst driving. High on the list are: using a mobile phone, passengers playing with the controls, screaming children and boisterous animals.
What distracts you at work?
As a leader how do you see your role in relation to such distractions both for yourself and the people you lead? If you leave people to their own devices they will find all sorts of things to distract them. As an effective leader it falls to you to manage such distractions both for yourself and your team, keeping them focused and engaged with their work.
In our experience of running personal development programmes for business professionals the major distractions come from 3 different sources –
From other people
interruptions
ineffective communication
shifting priorities
From your work
jobs you enjoy and spend far too much time on
tasks with unclear purpose or little meaning
email where you are cc’d for no apparent reason
meetings with little meaning for you, and no clear outcome
From yourself
over-thinking situations
boredom
lack of focus
poor decision-making
poor planning
ineffective communication
*having ‘oh dears’ instead of ‘ideas’
Distractions may feel satisfying at times and fulfil a short term need, but if you allow yourself to be continually distracted over a long period then all sorts of consequences may occur. You may become frustrated at your own lack of achievement, others will notice your lack of achievement, your stress levels will increase, and who knows what can happen next. So if you don’t want distractions to crash your career, take control of your attention.
If you were to spend some time around people who consistently achieve things confidently you would notice how they seem to be driven and focussed. They don’t waste time with unproductive activities and make every minute of the day count towards achieving something worthwhile. This comes from a deep desire, or aspiration, to have an impact somewhere, and everything they do seems to make their aspiration come to life. Everything begins with an idea. Some people are better than others at making their ideas a reality, and you can learn how to do this – as long as you have control over the distractions which want to derail you from the track you are on.
If you don’t already have a strong aspiration, think of a worthwhile goal which stirs up positive energy when you think about having achieved it. The way to build an aspiration is to use your imagination to create strong, colourful mental images of what you want to achieve –
- Choose a situation where you would like to be totally focussed and fully engaged.
- Create an image of yourself approaching this situation with absolute rock solid confidence. If your mental image is not very bright raise your eyes to a point above the horizon and notice how the picture suddenly brightens up. You can do this with eyes closed if this makes it easier for you to visualise, but keep your images projected above the horizon line.
- Run a movie in your mind ending in a positive result, and see yourself enjoying the moment of success. Now capture one frame of your movie which shows you being at your most confident.
- Now bring this image a little closer and brighten it even more. As you do this notice how positive feelings become stronger. Get used to this feeling as it will form part of your motivation to get up and make something happen.
Effective leaders have strong aspirations, keeping their attention focused on tasks that have a positive impact. As a leader you can help your team to be fully associated with their goals.
If, as a leader, you are not directing the efforts of your team onto worthwhile and productive activities, distractions of all kinds will not be far away.
Would you like your team to become fully focussed and engaged with their goals?
Call us on 0870 762 1300 to find our more about our RealLeadership programme.
