Being smart isn’t enough to be successful

The Focus Quotient

People struggle immensely with focus. It requires you to make choices, and people hate making choices. When you choose something, by default you unchoose other things. Having the smartest people in the room is not enough. You can be smart, and friendly, and talented, but if you’re doing too many things, or it’s not clear what to prioritize and what choice to make, they can stagnate and go nowhere, putting all the potential to waste. Giving your employees a better focus will improve work across the entire organization. Ask yourself: what would you stop, start, or continue? Use the answer to this question to help guide your focus.

The Root of the Problem

One of the biggest things that perpetuate a worker’s struggle to focus is that the strategy for success isn’t very clear. For a lot of people, they do work mindlessly, and complete projects without real structure or purpose, and that contributes to the lack of focusing on the ultimate goal. One of the ways to help refocus yourself is to ask yourself: Why am I doing this? How is this task contributing to the overall strategy that we have set in place? Is there something else that would better serve the ultimate purpose? You have to fully unpack and be very clear on what your purpose is in order to focus on it.

Emotional Intelligence

At a company level, you want a company that provides a safe environment so that everyone can be the best every day, and challenge each other, and not be afraid to fail. A lot of that comes from the culture that is promoted amongst employees. It can be easily missed, or you might think you’re better than you actually are. Sometimes it takes independent, confidential interviews to accurately identify the quality of EQ within a company. On a personal level, everyone has a different style of showing their emotional intelligence. The most successful people are very aware of their approach to others. They are more in tune with what the other person needs from them, and then adapt their style to meet those needs.