Skills Repeat

We all have moments where we scroll our various media channels thinking we have read or engaged with everything; but we haven’t.

Sometimes I check the weather app 3x before I have really taken it in. It is a lot of data at once but as it is aimless scrolling, we don’t always go in worth an objective.

I am not anti-scrolling. I learn unexpected things through scrolling but I think there is a time, place and a level of focus and intent you need to give any activity that you put yourself into. Engaging isn’t just glancing and flicking, or pressing the like button, it is conscious thinking,

When I started out the summer holiday with my children saying that I would do what they do; it has engrossed me in activities that I wouldn’t have been able to give 100% to as I would be too busy working rather than taking part.

The one thing I would put into consideration is this level of focus can’t be forced. It has to be wanted.

Asking people to lock up their phones and hide them isn’t the way to get engagement. Showing them the value of having some focused time in bursts rather than completely shutting it down will allow more positive collaboration and responses to the overall purpose. They will remember that they have participated in themselves and achieved something out of it.

As a business leader, assess your team’s capacity for engagement and allow them to lead with their best foot forward. They all know more of things you don’t expect, and interact with their environment in a different way, but they all appreciate the value of focused work.

As a leader, helping to manage the noise in the office (not decibels) but extra questions, unstructured process, unclear business commitments and reporting is your responsibility. Help your team focus by allowing them to be immersed in their objectives.