The Wrong Focus

I almost ran into the car just ahead of me. No, I wasn't on the phone.

raindrops

No...I wasn't texting.

I was looking straight ahead, but my focus was off.

It was raining just enough to leave big drops on the windshield. I got stuck looking at the drops.

Even though I was looking straight ahead my near-field focus limited my view of the goal...driving safely and arriving.

How often do we as leaders get stuck looking at what is right before us and in doing so lose sight of the goal?

If we are not careful the immediate rain-drops can distort the road to the goal.

We can become so focused on the details, becoming managers and even micro-managers of our tasks and teams, that we veer off the path.

It is important to glance at the processes that are taking us to the goal, but for leaders we have keep the final outcome in sight at all times.

Do you have examples of how the immediate can interfere with reaching the defined goal?