Fine Tuning Your Focus: 3 Secrets to Business Clarity

Focus insights guide business owners with strategies to clarify vision, define values, and set clear expectations. These insights pave the way for sustained growth and focus.

Losing Focus

It's easy for business owners to lose their focus. Doesn't mean we don't know what to do, we simply get overwhelmed, overloaded and overly frustrated. It happens. 

I think there are some fundamental activities a business owner needs to put in place to help them get focused and stay focused. And I call these Focus Insights. These are insights that you need to bring into play when your focus begins to slide, or gets hazy, or completely blurs the business horizon - leaving you stranded, unsure, confused, frustrated - you name it. A business owner who has lost their focus is lost, period. 

Why It Matters 

For business owners caught up in daily operations, focus is the key to success. It's easy to brush off the occasional drift in attention as part of the grind. However, what's at stake is not just a day's productivity but the very trajectory of your business. When the clarity of your vision blurs and the compass of your values starts spinning, these insights stand as beacons. They help chart a course to a destination where growth and fulfillment converge.  

Focus Insights

Here are what I refer to as Focus Insights.  

Focus Insight #1: Vision - believe it or not I've been hearing business pundits kinda put down the Vision thing for business owners. I personally can't think of a single thing more important for a business owner than to truly understand, envision and believe strongly in what they are trying to build. I will play this card every time I run into a business owner who is losing money, has a team that is disengaged or a client base that is eroding. 

A lack of a clear and articulated Vision will take its toll on a business. And this is particularly true in the start up and ramp up stages of growth. According to Keith McFarland in his book Breakthrough Companies, "When breakthrough companies are considering making a bet, they fanatically return to the vision they have for the firm and to their strategy for accomplishing it. A bold vision is what fuels a company's appetite for big bets." 

Articulate your Vision. What is the impact your company will have on the world in 18 months? 

Focus Insight #2: Values - clearly defined Values can bring a business owner back to center even faster than the vision. Your values define you and therefore they define your company. The actual acting upon those values is what defines a company's character. 

A business owner who is expanding their business beyond their direct control, meaning they are hiring employees and need those employees to 'do what's right' when dealing with coworkers, clients, and vendors - that business owner needs to articulate those values to help drive the behaviors that business owner requires. 

This one is a bit out there even for me - I seldom quote Buddha but I love how it clearly defines how you turn the development of strong values into the development of a company's character. In Sayings of Buddha: "The thought manifests as the word; the word manifests as the deed; the deed develops into habit; and habit broadens into character." Ask yourself: if you have defined your values are you acting upon them daily? 

Articulate your Values. What are your core beliefs - what has driven your own behavior? These are 5 - 6 words that describe what you care about the most. If you have articulated your values, find incidents where those values drove behaviors you liked - track and reward those behaviors. 

Focus Insight #3: Communicate clear expectations - to bring focus back to your organization, make the time to communicate clear expectations. When you feel your company is not in sync, people appear scattered, conflict is high, cooperation is lax and you again start to see an erosion of profits, or customer service or too much gossip - have one-on-one conversations with your direct reports and make sure everyone in your organization knows what's expected of them and equally important, what they can expect from you. 

Start with what you expect from yourself and then, if you have employees, what do you expect from them? If you have a business partner, what do you expect from him or her? Now go to your partner or your employees and ask what they expect from you? If you are a solo preneur, ask your clients what they expect from you?  

Next Steps 

I don't think any one of these three Insights should take you months to create. 

In fact, if you don't have your vision articulated, you haven't written down your values and you haven't communicated clear expectations, let's go there right now. If you have taken care of these three areas, write them down again. It's good practice. 

Yes, it's trite but true: Practice does make perfect! 

A business that isn't growing is dying. Understanding the dynamics of what your company needs as it moves through different stages of growth can mean the difference between success and failure. At some point a leader must 'let it go to let it grow'. Learn when your company flips from CEO-centric to Enterprise-centric and when hiring professional managers will determine how well you manage the next stage of growth.