Daniel Goleman, known for his pioneering work on emotional intelligence, goes a step ahead in his latest book, Focus, in which he talks about the necessity of being focused to succeed in life. He believes that our minds tend to wander and stray almost 40% of the times, thus dissipating our efforts right from the time we start going to school. The main culprits are ?distractions? like email and texting.
There are two parts broadly in this work. The first includes observations and reasoning of what we do and the second is more focused on leaders and what they should be doing, but do not. Based on science and several case studies, Goleman delves into the difference between sensory and emotional distractions, as well as ?top down? and ?bottom up? attention. He believes that emotional distractions matter more than sensory ones. Being spontaneous is more important.
Also, letting the mind wander can make us lose a game, as he shows in case of sportspersons (top down), who lose when their minds start thinking of others in the race. Here, he points out how marketers work on our spontaneous (bottom up) attention rather than planned reactions when creating advertisements to catch our attention.
On the other hand, letting the mind wander can be constructive too if somebody suffers from attention deficit disorder. They are able to conceive new ideas?Richard Branson being a classic example here.
Quite interestingly, Goleman shows that the mind tends to be the most focused when people make love, followed by exercising, talking and playing. And the mind is the least focused at the workplace, thanks to email and texting.
He gives a rather interesting example of how being focused works very well in a rudimentary area: memory. Tibetan monks are able to remember pages of notes easily, as they have been trained to do so from childhood. Hence translators for Tibetan speeches are able to do their job with consummate ease and accuracy.
Considerable willpower is needed to remain focused and Goleman talks of three attributes that are essential: disengagement from an object of desire, resisting distraction and staying focused on the final goal.
When he moves over to leaders, he draws patterns based on studies and surveys. CEOs rarely like to be told the truth about them and do not want to see themselves as others do, which is a weakness. As leaders go up in the power echelon, they do not want to hear anything unpleasant. Creating these blind spots is a recipe for failure. Goleman gives the example of how George Bush?s inner circle kept up the belief that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to be an embarrassment.
Also, no one questioned the wisdom of buying derivatives and it was this ?shared deception? that led to the financial crisis of 2007-08.
Goleman confronts Malcom Gladwell?s theory of 10,000 hours to success, which, simplistically speaking, says it takes roughly 10,000 hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Doing things mechanically does not mean spending that much time. One needs to introspect along the way and take in feedback regularly to move ahead. This may be a lesson for several leaders, who continue in positions of power for several terms. This is pertinent in India, where several CEOs in both family- and non-family-owned businesses, including private banks, never give up their tenure.
CEOs need to spend time introspecting and should ideally be not moving from one meeting to another. By doing so, they never stay focused on what has to be done for the organisation. In this light, Goleman feels that we need to map competencies to select a CEO or leader. His various interviews with CEOs show that few crossed eight competencies, while the ideal number should be 14. He ends by quoting Dalai Lama, who felt that any action taken by a leader should answer some questions: is it for me or others? Is it for few or many? Is it for now or the future? Only then will we be on the right path.
Goleman?s book is extremely interesting and should be read by all leaders, including CEOs. The two key aspects of not being focused and getting involved in myriad tasks, as well as an absence of ?self-awareness? are the stumbling blocks for leaders and their organisations or countries. The book is easy to read and Goleman restricts the scientific jargon to a minimum so that it can be picked up by the layman.
Madan Sabnavis is chief economist, CARE Ratings
