Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence

Focus, what gets our attention, matters because it determines how we navigate our lives. Oddly, focus is an underrated mental asset that has been largely overlooked.It was author, Daniel Goleman, who popularised the notion of emotional intelligence. “My goal here,” he writes, “is to spotlight this elusive and under-appreciated mental faculty in the mind’s operations and its role in living a fulfilling life.”To enjoy a “fulfilling life,” requires a three-part focusing ability: inner, other, and outer focus. Much like a muscle, focus improves as we deliberately use it more and weakens without conscious use.“Inner focus” makes us aware of our intuitions, our guiding values, and assists in making better decisions. “Other focus” aids in our interpersonal relations. “Outer focus” is necessary for navigating our way in the larger world in which we operate.It is not that we are paying less attention these days; it is that the attention we pay is decidedly different.Goleman observed a mother and her daughter on a ferry to an island vacation. “The little girl’s head came only up to her mother’s waist as she hugged her mom and held on fiercely… The mother, though, didn’t respond to her, or even seem to notice: she was absorbed in her iPad all the while.”The mother’s indifference is a symptom of how technology captures our attention and interferes with our connection.An eighth-grade teacher told Goleman that she has observed a decline in her pupil’s ability to read. “She wonders if perhaps her students’ ability to read has been somehow compromised by the short, choppy messages they get in texts.”The distracting effects of technology has led to a number of companies in Silicon Valley (the home of technology!) to ban laptops, mobile phones, and other digital tools during meetings.An executive coach, Tony Schwartz, who helps leaders manage their energy, told Goleman, “We get people to become more aware of how they use attention— which is always poorly. Attention is now the number-one issue on the minds of our clients.”Decades ago, Nobel-winning economist Herbert Simon presciently warned of the implications of the coming information-rich world. He warned, “A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.”There are two main types of distractions: sensory and emotional. The sensory distractors are easier to deal with, the more daunting distractions are the emotionally loaded issues. Such thoughts intrude in for a good reason: to have us think through what to do about what is upsetting us.Too often, the intrusions are unresolved and so the distressing thoughts recur in the same loop of worry.Focus, or attention, works at many levels. “What’s trending now” is a signal of how we are allotting our collective attention. Workplace surveys show where employees are spending most of their attention. Large numbers are daydreaming, wasting hours cruising the Web or YouTube, and doing the bare minimum required.“To get the disengaged workers any nearer the focused range demands upping their motivation and enthusiasm, evoking a sense of purpose, and adding a dollop of pressure,’ Goleman suggests.Life today is enmeshed in the digital distractions that create a near-constant cognitive overload. Overload wears out our self-control. Lost in the digital world we forget our resolve to diet and mindlessly reach for the Pringles, or forget the names of people we know well.It is easy to assume that attention needs be in the service of solving problems or achieving goals. However, our best ideas often come from the mind’s tendency to drift. Focused, goal-driven attention does not have more value than open, spontaneous awareness. Our minds will wander towards our current personal concerns and unresolved business, matters that do require our attention.At the corporate level “Directing attention toward where it needs to go is a primal task of leadership,” Goleman asserts.The leader’s task is to capture and direct the collective attention of staff. This requires, firstly that leaders focus their own attention, and only then attract and direct the attention from others. The requirement for the leader to have clarity of focus is largely because the attention of staff is guided by what leaders attend to – whether they explicitly articulate it or not.Organizations, as with individuals, have a limited capacity for attention. Organizations have to choose where to allocate attention, what they will focus on, and what they will ignore.“Signs of what might be called organizational “attention deficit disorder” include making flawed decisions because of missing data, no time for reflection, trouble getting attention in the marketplace, and inability to focus when and where it matters,” Goleman observes.In order to focus an organization, the leader must simplify the complexity. This is never a simple matter. Steve Jobs’s dictum that Apple products should allow a user to do anything in three clicks or fewer, demanded a deep understanding of the function of the commands and buttons being given up, and finding elegant alternatives.Focus at the strategic level is no different. It too demands a deep understanding of what can be overlooked and of the alternatives.This issue of individual ability to focus and well as our corporate ability to focus is too urgent to ignore. This book is a excellent place to start.Readability Light ---+- SeriousInsights High +_--- LowPractical High --+-- LowIan Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy

I learned a lot about the brain and how effective leadership can make or break an organization of any kind. A

This is one of the most interesting books I’ve read in a long time. He applies what research has shown about the neurobiology of attention to so many areas of interest, including leadership, business success or failure, education, even why it’s hard for people to fully appreciate the dangers of climate change. There are three chapters on how this knowledge can be applied to our ability to direct our own attention and focus.

The media could not be loaded.  “In very recent years the science of attention has blossomed far beyond vigilance. That science tells us these skills determine how well we perform any task. If they are stunted, we do poorly; if muscular, we can excel. Our very nimbleness in life depends on this subtle faculty. While the link between attention and excellence remains hidden most of the time, it ripples through almost everything we seek to accomplish.This supple tool embeds within countless mental operations. A short list of some basics includes comprehension, memory, learning, sensing how we feel and why, reading emotions in other people and interacting smoothly. Surfacing this invisible factor in effectiveness lets us better see the benefits of improving this mental faculty, and better understand just how to do that.Through an optical illusion of the mind we typically register the end products of attention—our ideas good and bad, a telling wink or inviting smile, the whiff of morning coffee—without noticing the beam of awareness itself.Though it matters enormously for how we navigate life, attention in all its varieties represents a little-noticed and underrated mental asset. My goal here is to spotlight this elusive and underappreciated mental faculty in the mind’s operations and its role in living a fulfilling life.”~ Daniel Goleman from FocusDaniel Goleman is a former New York Times science writer and author of the uber-bestselling book Emotional Intelligence.In Focus, we look at the underlying neuroscience of attention.We need to start by realizing that the strength (or weakness) of our attention is at the core of E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. we do.Everything!Which is why Goleman calls it “the hidden driver of excellence.”(It’s also why protecting and cultivating Emerson’s attention is one of the absolute top priorities Alexandra and I have as we seek to bring forth (aka parent) the best within him.)The good news is that our focus is like a muscle—although if we use it poorly it will wither, if we work it out wisely it gets stronger. Goleman walks us through the neuroscience of the various facets of our focus. I’m going to focus on practical stuff we can apply TODAY.I'm excited to share some of my favorite Big Ideas:1. Yoda Says - Your focus is your reality.2. Fruitless Rumination - vs. Productive reflection.3. Resting - Your mental muscle.4. Willpower - It's 3 types of focus.5. Smart Practice - T0 reach your Peak.Let's optimize our ability to focus and then widen our lens so we can serve as profoundly as we possibly can!.More goodness— including PhilosophersNotes on 300+ books in our ​*OPTIMIZE*​ membership program. Find out more at brianjohnson . me.

The media could not be loaded.  Great wide-ranging look at focus, attention and peak performance. I loved its scope including education, neuroscience and business. A great read.

Mr Goleman and his partner write using words I can understand exploring and explaining ideas that arise from Buddha as elaborated over the years. Loving kindness, to quote another author, seems yuk, but it did shift my perspective and I would recommend giving the meditation a try. Lots of other parts seem to gel with other authors advice. Well worth reading, thinking, and trying out. The slow coherent drip drip of the same messages from many authors may eventually get through to people like me who are a bit slow to fully understand.

I found the book quite weak in arguments and information provided. The examples used to support the science are weak and unrelated to the subject in itself - attention. There is political bias, and other information dispersed that in my humble opinion does not have its place as its rather propagandistic more than anything else. What a waste of time this book has been. I am not familiar with the author’s work but i have now put off completely after attempting to read this.

The book is introduced well but towards the end the author reveals some political bias and makes big claims on subject matter that is highly contested among scientists in the area. This is a good food for thought, and the first half particularly is interesting if you're unaware with the material, but if you've read other books on this subject then you're probably not going to get anything new here, however you will get a lot of off topic subject material towards the end that you might not be intending to pay for.

I am in the middle of reading the book; currently halfway through. So far the book itself is easy to read if you had an experience with other books on the similar subject you'd find yourself quick to understand and move on without lingering in your thoughts on the matter. I have learned a whole bunch from the book so far and I enjoy the stories associated with the writer's points.