Poverty of Attention

Information consumes attention, wealth of information leads to poverty of attention –Herbert Simon.

The sheer magnitude of information we are forced to consume, assimilate and act upon is an indication of the turbulent times we are in. The first casualty in dealing with this onslaught is Focus, Leaders grapple with sense making from all the various messages and stimuli and deal with it in their own way. It becomes more important to make the leaders stop doing something than in doing something new, this state of zen or FLOW can arise only when the expertise and skill required to achieve the task is at the right proportion, if skill is higher than the task being performed, it leads to boredom .If the skill required is lower than what’s expected for the task ,apathy sets in.

Being able to filter and the ability to distil the essence of complex decision making into granular functions is extremely important. The brain when functioning at peak efficiency is actually at a satisfying hum of a superb engine rather than a frantic throbbing roar, this happens when the brain is fully immersed in performing the task. When regular actions become habits, the brain expends lesser energy in performing the same .

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Treat People the way you want to be treated –Not quite

I was coaching a CFO who had the habit of making scathing remarks to his subordinates in the guise of “smart ass funny remarks” as one of his reports pointed out. My client was of the opinion he was a fun guy and, since he was delivering feedback in a lighter vein –it would take the sting out of his criticism. But as you can guess, this is not what came out during the 360 degree feedback session and what I also observed during the shadowing sessions, when I brought this to the CFO’s notice and asked him if that was the way he would have wanted to be treated by his Boss. He mulled over it a bit and replied in the negative. Only way later did I realize this was not the correct way forward.

I learnt this lesson from a coachee –My coachee had a habit of swearing and backslapping and was at ease being one of the boys, some of the other department heads and his reports were a bit uncomfortable

When I brought this to his notice, he was non plussed and said this is the relationship he enjoyed with his boss and he went along with the maxim “I treat my reports the same way I am treated by my boss which I am actually comfortable with”. This is when the penny dropped for me as a coach and then we worked on how different people absorb different messages and interpret it in as per their own mental model. The new mantra would be “Treat others as they would like to be treated”

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