September 4, 2025 • 22 mins
Trying to improve in too many areas simultaneously is the fastest path to nowhere. In this thought-provoking episode, Russ Hill tackles the widespread problem of focus dilution that plagues both organizations and individuals.
Drawing from his extensive experience coaching executive teams at major companies, Russ reveals how well-intentioned HR departments and leaders often sabotage progress by overwhelming their teams with too many priorities, resources, and development initiatives. He vividly describes the "whack-a-mole" approach that leaves people paralyzed by good intentions rather than empowered to make meaningful improvements.
Through personal anecdotes and organizational examples, Russ demonstrates how narrowing your focus to just 2-3 priorities creates the conditions for actual movement. Whether it's in your personal development journey (where trying to improve your fitness, relationships, spiritual life, and professional skills simultaneously leads nowhere) or in your leadership approach (where bombarding your team with constant new initiatives prevents any from taking root), the principle remains the same: less truly is more.
The episode offers a refreshing counterpoint to our culture's tendency toward information overload. Russ shares how a former boss challenged his habit of constantly reading new leadership books, suggesting instead that he read one book multiple times and fully implement its insights. This approach—studying fewer resources more deeply—creates sustainable change in a way that constant consumption never can.
Ready to break free from the paralysis of too many priorities? Listen now to discover how focusing on less can help you and your organization achieve more. Share this episode with colleagues who might be struggling with initiative overload in their organizations, and start creating real movement today by narrowing your focus.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stop trying to be exceptional in every area.
The fastest path to nowhere ispicking multiple destinations.
You want to be great.
You want to get real movement.
You got to narrow your focus.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30
minutes Lead through 30.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Lead through change.
Choose to be powerful.
Make decisions faster and withbuy-in.
Check out the new 30-dayleadership courses now available
from Lone Rock Leadership.
You can watch the previewvideos right now at lonerockio.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
They are the four areas that every organization
struggles with.
They are the four areas thatevery organization struggles
with.
I promise you that your company, your team, is having
challenges in one of these fourareas, and we've got those
courses available off the shelffor you at LoneRockio.
Welcome in to the Lead in 30podcast.
My name is Russ Hill.
(01:01):
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you an idea of framework,
an example of best practice,something to consider
implementing in the way that youlead others.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest and most amazing
companies, and in this littlecorner of the online universe is
(01:21):
where I get to share what ourteam is, uh, is learning Again.
You can find out more about ourexecutive team consulting work
or our off the shelf 30 daycohort leadership training.
You can get people in HR LNDcertified in it at lone rockio.
Okay, so this is.
This is a recurring problem thatI want to talk about in the
(01:44):
episode with you today, and weall struggle with it.
Some of our organization well,that's not true.
All of our organizationsstruggle with it, and we as
individuals, at a personal level, in our attempt to grow, to
succeed, to learn to improve.
This is one of thosegravitational forces out there
(02:06):
that we have to combat.
And what is it?
It's this whack-a-mole, this,everything focusing on
everything.
Let me give you an example.
So some organizations that wework with, either in the
leadership training space,they're buying licenses for our
content and utilizing ourcourses with their mid-level
(02:30):
managers Maybe they've gothundreds, or maybe they've got
thousands of those managers.
They're implementing solutions,or maybe they're using us on
the executive consulting side,and so we're on site every
quarter with the executive team.
And what happens so often,especially and I don't mean to
(02:51):
pinpoint any particulardepartment, because we all
struggle with this, but in HRand L&D, learning and
development, and in humanresources or the people side of
the business, we I it's goodintentions that drive this
problem, but it is a problem,and and, and what often happens
is we want to be this resource.
(03:13):
So hr, or maybe an executiveeven, and outside of hr or lnd,
they want to be a resource.
They want to help their teamdevelop, to get better, to be
more effective, and so they'reconstantly on the prowl,
searching for, looking for,shopping for anything that might
improve them.
Or they have a habit of readingbooks, they love to read, and
(03:37):
so they're out there in.
Whatever the latest leadershipbook is or the latest article,
is that that that somebody postsin their feed on linkedin, they
share it with everybody, orthey, they, they bring it up in
a meeting.
And so what happens?
And and again, it's goodintentions that are driving this
(03:57):
, like we're oh, here's a goodidea I saw, or here's something
that um would be useful, or oh,my gosh, this is a, this is a
great, an important area forleaders to get better at, or
organizations to fix or dealwith.
And so this executive or thisHR team or this L&D department
(04:18):
thinks, well, we're trying to bea great resource, and so
they're funneling things out,sending out emails, posting it
to Slack, putting it in teams,putting uh, offering trainings,
um, making resource kits, uh,handing out books or doing book
clubs or whatever it might,forwarding articles, posting
this or whatever it might be.
(04:38):
What?
What ends up happening is noneof it sticks.
It's absolutely the recipe, theexact formula that you would
want to pick if you don't wantany movement, and so you have to
.
And the way this happens at apersonal level is we see all
(05:00):
these things either in oursocial media feeds or in our
shopping, or in the articles weread, or in the in the
conferences we go to.
And I remember one conference Iwent to in Orlando a few years
ago and you know they've gotthere were probably 5,000 people
there and I loved theconference, but every session so
(05:21):
like every hour, maybe, maybeevery 45 minutes, maybe whatever
it was they'd have somebodyelse on stage, somebody else on
stage, somebody else on stage,constant, constant, constant
sort of things.
And I would think, oh my gosh,that is so good, oh my goodness,
that was so good, oh that'sgood, oh this, and, and guess
what?
You leave and you're fullyentertained, your mind has been
(05:45):
stimulated, you're thinking,you're, you're full of good
ideas, and how much of it do youimplement in your own personal
life or in your organization?
None of it.
None of it.
Why?
Because it's overload, it's toomany things.
We talk about this a lot you'veheard me talk about this theme
(06:06):
because it's core of every, allof our work around clarity right
and taking the complex andmaking it simple.
So we focus with organizationsand executives and leaders on
this, from the, from theexecution standpoint of um,
expect of deliverables.
So you yeah, we're tracking 80things, but you need to really
(06:27):
prioritize three or four and letthe organization know these are
the three or four mostimportant objectives and metrics
, or categories and metrics,right, um, I'm not talking about
that today.
In this episode, the sameprinciple applies, but I'm not
talking about it from the from akey results or a tkr, a team
key result standpoint that wereally work on.
(06:49):
That's one of the majoroutcomes of lead in 30, that
that 30-day cohort experience is.
Leaders leave the mid-levelmanager leaves with clarity
around.
Well, what do I need?
What do I need to go to my teamwith in order to get them to
focus and prioritize on theright things, to where we can
actually hit some of these TKRs,some of these outcomes or KPIs,
whatever you want to call itfor the year, and so that's
(07:13):
really effective.
But the same is true indevelopment.
And so let me just get superpersonal and then we'll come
back and apply it from the teamstandpoint or the organization
standpoint, because so many ofyour organizations they struggle
with this and it's so painfulto watch because you're actually
(07:33):
wasting so much money, you'rewasting so much time.
It's it's you're not actuallyhelping the organization move
forward.
You're wasting so much time.
It's.
It's you're not actuallyhelping the organization move
forward, you're actually holdingus where we're at, you're
disabling movement, and so I'llget back to the team and
(07:54):
organization level in a moment.
But so in your personal life,there's so many ways you want to
improve, aren't there, like?
You want to be healthier, youwant to be more in shape, you
want to work on your diet, youwant to work on how much you
exercise or how active you are,whether that's, you know, a
strength training, or whetherthat's getting ready for a race,
(08:17):
or whether that's just goingfor a walk once a day or once
every two days, or, you know,some of you are super aggressive
in that, in those, in thosegoals, and some of you just have
kind of minor ones.
And so, but we want to, we wantto be, we want to eat better,
we want to be more active, morein shape.
You also want to read more,probably, right, like you
(08:37):
probably have this desire to, Iwant to read more and focus on
certain things and take morecourses or buy, you know, buy
more books, or finish more books.
Um, then you probably havesomething around spirit, you
know the spiritual goal being abetter person, or maybe it's
more around your values ormeditation or who knows.
(08:59):
However you categorize that inyour particular life.
You've got some goal aroundthat.
And then you've gotrelationship goals with either a
spouse or a partner or familymembers, a kid, a sibling or
whatever it might be.
Then you want to do more, likein the neighborhood, like you
want to get to know yourneighbors more and you want to,
you know, maybe put on afunction and when the weather is
(09:20):
nice and you're having a littlestreet barbecue or whatever
like that would be nice.
Or you want to help that ladydown the street or that family
that you haven't gotten to know,that moved in six months ago
and you've been meaning to getover to them.
And then you want to.
You want to be more present atyour kid's school or with their,
your in-laws.
You know your son-in-law ordaughter-in-law or whatever it
(09:40):
might be, your in-laws.
You know your son-in-law ordaughter-in-law or whatever it
might be.
Then you want to like take acourse or go back to school and
get that degree or finish thatcertification or do that, and
while you want to be better atyour a chef right At cooking and
all of that, like you get thepoint right you want to organize
the garage, you want to get thebasement, whatever you?
(10:00):
You've got this list of likeall of these things.
It's actually one of my petpeeves about religion and I'm a
very religious, spiritual person, and the church that I am a
part of and that I've attendedmy whole life is getting much
better at this.
You know they're a globalentity with millions of people
(10:22):
and whatever else, and so youhave this leadership structure,
uh, of the churches, like anyoneand um, and, and you know so
they've got projects andpriorities and programs and
initiatives and whatever else,and so you can go to church on a
given Sunday or whatever, readsome of the content they got
apps right and different thingsor listen to a talk, and it's,
(10:44):
it's, it's.
It can quickly become too muchlike I need to do that and I
need to be better at this and Ineed to improve in that way.
And oh, as a family, we're notdoing this and as an individual,
I'm not doing that.
And in order to be a goodchristian or follower of christ
or whatever it is, whateverreligion or maybe you're not
even really, you get the point,like all of these things, and
then what ends up happening isyou're just overloaded, like
(11:07):
it's too much, too much, and sowhat do you end up doing?
You bring so much value to theindividual that you're not
helping them in any measurableway, and so you've got to strip
all that away, as much of it asyou possibly can, and just pick
a few key areas, the areas wewant you to really focus on, or
(11:32):
that where we're trying to bringvalue to you is this area.
I give you another example inthat space and then I'll move
off of it.
So when I, um, when I've beenasked to serve in different
positions of leadership in, uh,because our, our, the church I'm
a part of and again I'm goingto get off the church example in
a minute just think of it asorganization, because I'm not
(11:53):
really getting into the religionside of it.
Just this is an example becauseI've got firsthand experience
in it, um, on the personal level.
Then we'll go back to companiesand teams in a minute.
But so I you know I'd be I'llbe asked.
There was a period of time where, for four years, where I was
asked to serve over this area ofour church and you know
thousands of people that were,that, that were members of our
(12:14):
church in this area and and sowe would do these conferences
and um, these meetings, and, andit's standard policy that you
would get everyone in the areato gather three times a year and
you would have multiplemeetings, two to three times,
kind of varied.
And you would have a Saturdaykind of leadership session for
(12:35):
two hours, and then you wouldhave a Saturday night where just
the adult members of the churchwould come, and then Sunday
morning you'd have like asession with the youth and all
the teenagers would come for anhour or two, and then you'd have
another session with all thefamilies.
Everybody would come to that,and each of these meetings is
two hours and then, and so youand you ask people to speak at
(12:55):
them.
And so for the leadershipmeeting on Saturday, you've got
six speakers, and then for theSaturday night session, you've
got eight speakers, and then forthe Sunday morning, you've got
two or three speakers.
And then for the general, andwhat happens is the person
sitting in the pew or in thechair?
They're overloaded.
(13:16):
You've given them 27 topics oneverything, from just everything
under the sun.
So what do you actually wantthem to do?
So I was a huge advocate and I'mlike I'm so low on the food
chain, on the org chart, so tospeak right that I can't make
(13:37):
any difference.
But I kept advocating for canwe not do two hours?
Can we do like?
Where does it say in the rulesthat we have to do a two hour
meeting and have eight speakers?
Can't we do one hour?
And and just have threespeakers?
And can't the topics all beconnected?
And it's just this one thing,and and let's just give some
different ways to look at thattopic and and let's leave them
(14:00):
wanting more and and and let'sfocus on what we're, what we're
asking them to do.
And I, I, I got, I made someprogress in that we got the
meetings down to, in someinstances, an hour and a half,
but I just you know, it wasstandard kind of I couldn't find
it written anywhere, but itjust seemed to be cultural that
these meetings needed to be twohours and and then people just
(14:22):
stop coming, a lot of peopledon't show up because it's
overload, and and yet we'redoing that in our organizations.
And so I had a, I had a leaderthat I worked for years ago and
I, um, I would constantly tellhim uh, when I first started
working with him.
I reported into him and, uh, Iwould tell him I read this book
(14:43):
on this and that's amazing to besome leadership book, right.
Like this, back in the dayswhen you go to Barnes and Noble
or Borders or whatever thebookstores, the physical
bookstores were, and so I wouldlove to go, like on a Saturday
morning or Friday night orwhatever, on my way home from
work I'd stop by the bookstore,just walk around, look at the
shiny you know objects.
(15:05):
The different titles be like,oh, this is a really good book
on this.
Or wow, this person who ranthat company wrote a book on how
he or she did this and I'mgonna buy that one.
So I'd come home with three orfour because I couldn't pick
just one, right, because theyall look so interesting, and I'd
read one and I'd talk to myboss about it and I would say,
hey, this book is just soamazing and this book and
(15:27):
whatever.
And he's like do you everconsider this?
What he said to me, it's likedo you ever consider reading
less?
Or going back to the same book,like that's the only book that
you're going to study for thenext three months and you're
going to read it four or fivetimes and you're going to really
pick out some things toimplement in your life.
(15:48):
And I it was kind of a, it waskind of a downer to me when he
brought it up to me.
I'm like, oh, I really thinkthis is like a strength of mine
that I'm reading all of thesethings.
But he was absolutely right.
And so there are a few booksthat I have listened to.
So I implemented that changeand I still would come home from
(16:09):
with four books, but I would, Iwould, I the the.
The pivot I made was I'm goingto read the book three or four
times.
And now in today's day and age,what I do is I go back and I
listen to the audio book, or I'mnot doing yard work or I'm
doing whatever, and I'll go backand I'll listen to chapter four
, I'll listen to chapter seven,or I want to implement this
(16:31):
particular thing, or I'll find apodcast episode where that
author was a guest on a certainshow and he or she is going
deeper on this thing, she'sgoing deeper on this thing, and
so they're reinforcing in mymind as I'm listening to that
podcast interview, or I'mwatching that YouTube video, or
I'm watching that person onstage deliver a keynote around
that book.
It's reinforcing those ideas.
(16:51):
So the takeaway is in so manyof our organizations we've got
to dial it back.
We've got to pick fewerleadership competencies.
Like you're giving me stuff onhow to be inclusive, how to
build trust, how to do this, howto be a better coach, how to
listen to feedback more, how todo that, like it just constantly
(17:14):
we, we just work with so manyof these HR and L and D teams
that are making these beautifulresources, pamphlets and
brochures and then you, they'rereinforcing pillars and
priorities and um vision andprojects and we're sending all
of these beautiful resources outto the leaders across the
(17:36):
organization and nobody knowswhich one's important, which one
we're actually doing.
They can't do it all.
You want to be paralyzed.
You want to be.
You want to be just have nomotion.
You want to just get stuck byan overwhelm.
Tell me to work on 80 differentthings.
(17:59):
I don't know what it is thatyou think is actually important,
because you can't possiblythink all of this is important.
You can't possibly think we'regoing to do all these things,
and so in our personal lives wepick just a few things.
You know what this month, I'mactually just going to focus on
the basement.
You know what?
(18:19):
This month, I'm actually goingto take a course and I'm going
to work on the basement.
You know what this month I'mactually going to?
I'm going to take a course andI'm going to work on becoming a
better cook, a chef, baker,whatever it is.
That's what I'm digging into,and it can only be two or three
things at once.
It cannot be 15.
I see this everywhere in my lifePeople who have so many good
intentions, so many greatdesires, they're reading so much
(18:41):
, they're listening to so much.
They've got this task list of80 million great things, and
then you know what?
They get home and they're tiredand they the list is
overwhelming, and so they donone of it, literally none of it
.
And the exact same thing istrue in organizations.
We send out all of this content, we get people all of these
resources.
What are they executing on noneof it.
(19:01):
We've got no measurablemovement.
And so I hate to say it, butit's the reality.
All of the energy you'respending building those
resources is actually wastedwasted.
It's a disservice, it's not agood thing, it's not a strength
(19:24):
of your organization.
Sending out a book or anarticle to the team every week
or every few days, that you'reactually doing them a disservice
.
So pick a few.
It's these three corecompetencies, it's these two
core skills, it's this area.
We're going to get really goodat giving and receiving feedback
(19:47):
as a leadership team, likewe're going to finally make some
progress in this area.
That's the focus for the nextthree, six months and we're
going to we're going to lay outhow to do that and how we're
going to hold people accountable, or it's we're going to finally
get focused and prioritizing onthe right things, the things
that really move the needle forour organization.
(20:09):
So we're going to teach ourmanagers how to do that, and so
we're just going to do that whenleaders do this.
This is why we've had such goodluck with Clarity Al.
It's been so powerful.
Why it's so sticky is becausewhen these executives of
organizations, whether they havea thousand employees or a
hundred thousand employees, whenthe executive or executive team
(20:31):
comes out and says these arethe three most important things,
guess what happens?
Movement.
There's actual, detectable,measurable progress towards
something because we narrow thefocus.
And the same is true in ourdesire to improve, to be more
(20:52):
effective, to grow, tostrengthen our ability.
So, in your own life, narrowthe focus.
What are the two or threethings that's it Cause you're
not going to do the 10.
It's not going to happen.
Can you just finally look atyour life over the last three,
four, five, 20 years and say,yep, whenever I've had all this
(21:13):
big list, not much has gottendone, or it's random things that
I check off the list.
So you're going to narrow thefocus of where you want to
improve and get better andyou're going to do the same
thing.
What I would suggest, what I'madvocating, is you do the exact
same thing for your team, foryour organization less noise.
(21:34):
Take the complex, make it simple.
It's only these few things.
That's what we're focusing on.
It's only these few things.
That's what we're focusing on.
When you narrow the focus, youactually get movement.
When you narrow the focus, youactually see progress.
When you narrow the focus, youfeel more energized because it's
doable, it's attainable, yousee the path.
(21:57):
When you've got 10 destinations, you don't even get up off the
couch because I don't know whereto go first and look at all the
moving and driving and workthat's needed to get to those 10
destinations.
So pick one, pick three, picktwo.
Narrow the focus.
That's what I'm advocating inthis episode of the Lead in 30
(22:20):
podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
Share this episode with a colleague, your team or a
friend.
Tap on the share button andtext the link.
Thanks for listening to theLead in 30 podcast with Russ
Hill.
Stop trying to be exceptional in every area.
The fastest path to nowhere ispicking multiple destinations.
You want to be great.
You want to get real movement.
You got to narrow your focus.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russ Hill.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
You cannot be serious .
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30
minutes Lead through 30.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Lead through change.
Choose to be powerful.
Make decisions faster and withbuy-in.
Check out the new 30-dayleadership courses now available
from Lone Rock Leadership.
You can watch the previewvideos right now at lonerockio.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
They are the four areas that every organization
struggles with.
They are the four areas thatevery organization struggles
with.
I promise you that your company, your team, is having
challenges in one of these fourareas, and we've got those
courses available off the shelffor you at LoneRockio.
Welcome in to the Lead in 30podcast.
My name is Russ Hill.
(01:01):
In less than 30 minutes, wegive you an idea of framework,
an example of best practice,something to consider
implementing in the way that youlead others.
I make my living coaching,consulting senior executive
teams at some of the world'sbiggest and most amazing
companies, and in this littlecorner of the online universe is
(01:21):
where I get to share what ourteam is, uh, is learning Again.
You can find out more about ourexecutive team consulting work
or our off the shelf 30 daycohort leadership training.
You can get people in HR LNDcertified in it at lone rockio.
Okay, so this is.
This is a recurring problem thatI want to talk about in the
(01:44):
episode with you today, and weall struggle with it.
Some of our organization well,that's not true.
All of our organizationsstruggle with it, and we as
individuals, at a personal level, in our attempt to grow, to
succeed, to learn to improve.
This is one of thosegravitational forces out there
(02:06):
that we have to combat.
And what is it?
It's this whack-a-mole, this,everything focusing on
everything.
Let me give you an example.
So some organizations that wework with, either in the
leadership training space,they're buying licenses for our
content and utilizing ourcourses with their mid-level
(02:30):
managers Maybe they've gothundreds, or maybe they've got
thousands of those managers.
They're implementing solutions,or maybe they're using us on
the executive consulting side,and so we're on site every
quarter with the executive team.
And what happens so often,especially and I don't mean to
(02:51):
pinpoint any particulardepartment, because we all
struggle with this, but in HRand L&D, learning and
development, and in humanresources or the people side of
the business, we I it's goodintentions that drive this
problem, but it is a problem,and and, and what often happens
is we want to be this resource.
(03:13):
So hr, or maybe an executiveeven, and outside of hr or lnd,
they want to be a resource.
They want to help their teamdevelop, to get better, to be
more effective, and so they'reconstantly on the prowl,
searching for, looking for,shopping for anything that might
improve them.
Or they have a habit of readingbooks, they love to read, and
(03:37):
so they're out there in.
Whatever the latest leadershipbook is or the latest article,
is that that that somebody postsin their feed on linkedin, they
share it with everybody, orthey, they, they bring it up in
a meeting.
And so what happens?
And and again, it's goodintentions that are driving this
(03:57):
, like we're oh, here's a goodidea I saw, or here's something
that um would be useful, or oh,my gosh, this is a, this is a
great, an important area forleaders to get better at, or
organizations to fix or dealwith.
And so this executive or thisHR team or this L&D department
(04:18):
thinks, well, we're trying to bea great resource, and so
they're funneling things out,sending out emails, posting it
to Slack, putting it in teams,putting uh, offering trainings,
um, making resource kits, uh,handing out books or doing book
clubs or whatever it might,forwarding articles, posting
this or whatever it might be.
(04:38):
What?
What ends up happening is noneof it sticks.
It's absolutely the recipe, theexact formula that you would
want to pick if you don't wantany movement, and so you have to
.
And the way this happens at apersonal level is we see all
(05:00):
these things either in oursocial media feeds or in our
shopping, or in the articles weread, or in the in the
conferences we go to.
And I remember one conference Iwent to in Orlando a few years
ago and you know they've gotthere were probably 5,000 people
there and I loved theconference, but every session so
(05:21):
like every hour, maybe, maybeevery 45 minutes, maybe whatever
it was they'd have somebodyelse on stage, somebody else on
stage, somebody else on stage,constant, constant, constant
sort of things.
And I would think, oh my gosh,that is so good, oh my goodness,
that was so good, oh that'sgood, oh this, and, and guess
what?
You leave and you're fullyentertained, your mind has been
(05:45):
stimulated, you're thinking,you're, you're full of good
ideas, and how much of it do youimplement in your own personal
life or in your organization?
None of it.
None of it.
Why?
Because it's overload, it's toomany things.
We talk about this a lot you'veheard me talk about this theme
(06:06):
because it's core of every, allof our work around clarity right
and taking the complex andmaking it simple.
So we focus with organizationsand executives and leaders on
this, from the, from theexecution standpoint of um,
expect of deliverables.
So you yeah, we're tracking 80things, but you need to really
(06:27):
prioritize three or four and letthe organization know these are
the three or four mostimportant objectives and metrics
, or categories and metrics,right, um, I'm not talking about
that today.
In this episode, the sameprinciple applies, but I'm not
talking about it from the from akey results or a tkr, a team
key result standpoint that wereally work on.
(06:49):
That's one of the majoroutcomes of lead in 30, that
that 30-day cohort experience is.
Leaders leave the mid-levelmanager leaves with clarity
around.
Well, what do I need?
What do I need to go to my teamwith in order to get them to
focus and prioritize on theright things, to where we can
actually hit some of these TKRs,some of these outcomes or KPIs,
whatever you want to call itfor the year, and so that's
(07:13):
really effective.
But the same is true indevelopment.
And so let me just get superpersonal and then we'll come
back and apply it from the teamstandpoint or the organization
standpoint, because so many ofyour organizations they struggle
with this and it's so painfulto watch because you're actually
(07:33):
wasting so much money, you'rewasting so much time.
It's it's you're not actuallyhelping the organization move
forward.
You're wasting so much time.
It's.
It's you're not actuallyhelping the organization move
forward, you're actually holdingus where we're at, you're
disabling movement, and so I'llget back to the team and
(07:54):
organization level in a moment.
But so in your personal life,there's so many ways you want to
improve, aren't there, like?
You want to be healthier, youwant to be more in shape, you
want to work on your diet, youwant to work on how much you
exercise or how active you are,whether that's, you know, a
strength training, or whetherthat's getting ready for a race,
(08:17):
or whether that's just goingfor a walk once a day or once
every two days, or, you know,some of you are super aggressive
in that, in those, in thosegoals, and some of you just have
kind of minor ones.
And so, but we want to, we wantto be, we want to eat better,
we want to be more active, morein shape.
You also want to read more,probably, right, like you
(08:37):
probably have this desire to, Iwant to read more and focus on
certain things and take morecourses or buy, you know, buy
more books, or finish more books.
Um, then you probably havesomething around spirit, you
know the spiritual goal being abetter person, or maybe it's
more around your values ormeditation or who knows.
(08:59):
However you categorize that inyour particular life.
You've got some goal aroundthat.
And then you've gotrelationship goals with either a
spouse or a partner or familymembers, a kid, a sibling or
whatever it might be.
Then you want to do more, likein the neighborhood, like you
want to get to know yourneighbors more and you want to,
you know, maybe put on afunction and when the weather is
(09:20):
nice and you're having a littlestreet barbecue or whatever
like that would be nice.
Or you want to help that ladydown the street or that family
that you haven't gotten to know,that moved in six months ago
and you've been meaning to getover to them.
And then you want to.
You want to be more present atyour kid's school or with their,
your in-laws.
You know your son-in-law ordaughter-in-law or whatever it
(09:40):
might be, your in-laws.
You know your son-in-law ordaughter-in-law or whatever it
might be.
Then you want to like take acourse or go back to school and
get that degree or finish thatcertification or do that, and
while you want to be better atyour a chef right At cooking and
all of that, like you get thepoint right you want to organize
the garage, you want to get thebasement, whatever you?
(10:00):
You've got this list of likeall of these things.
It's actually one of my petpeeves about religion and I'm a
very religious, spiritual person, and the church that I am a
part of and that I've attendedmy whole life is getting much
better at this.
You know they're a globalentity with millions of people
(10:22):
and whatever else, and so youhave this leadership structure,
uh, of the churches, like anyoneand um, and, and you know so
they've got projects andpriorities and programs and
initiatives and whatever else,and so you can go to church on a
given Sunday or whatever, readsome of the content they got
apps right and different thingsor listen to a talk, and it's,
(10:44):
it's, it's.
It can quickly become too muchlike I need to do that and I
need to be better at this and Ineed to improve in that way.
And oh, as a family, we're notdoing this and as an individual,
I'm not doing that.
And in order to be a goodchristian or follower of christ
or whatever it is, whateverreligion or maybe you're not
even really, you get the point,like all of these things, and
then what ends up happening isyou're just overloaded, like
(11:07):
it's too much, too much, and sowhat do you end up doing?
You bring so much value to theindividual that you're not
helping them in any measurableway, and so you've got to strip
all that away, as much of it asyou possibly can, and just pick
a few key areas, the areas wewant you to really focus on, or
(11:32):
that where we're trying to bringvalue to you is this area.
I give you another example inthat space and then I'll move
off of it.
So when I, um, when I've beenasked to serve in different
positions of leadership in, uh,because our, our, the church I'm
a part of and again I'm goingto get off the church example in
a minute just think of it asorganization, because I'm not
(11:53):
really getting into the religionside of it.
Just this is an example becauseI've got firsthand experience
in it, um, on the personal level.
Then we'll go back to companiesand teams in a minute.
But so I you know I'd be I'llbe asked.
There was a period of time where, for four years, where I was
asked to serve over this area ofour church and you know
thousands of people that were,that, that were members of our
(12:14):
church in this area and and sowe would do these conferences
and um, these meetings, and, andit's standard policy that you
would get everyone in the areato gather three times a year and
you would have multiplemeetings, two to three times,
kind of varied.
And you would have a Saturdaykind of leadership session for
(12:35):
two hours, and then you wouldhave a Saturday night where just
the adult members of the churchwould come, and then Sunday
morning you'd have like asession with the youth and all
the teenagers would come for anhour or two, and then you'd have
another session with all thefamilies.
Everybody would come to that,and each of these meetings is
two hours and then, and so youand you ask people to speak at
(12:55):
them.
And so for the leadershipmeeting on Saturday, you've got
six speakers, and then for theSaturday night session, you've
got eight speakers, and then forthe Sunday morning, you've got
two or three speakers.
And then for the general, andwhat happens is the person
sitting in the pew or in thechair?
They're overloaded.
(13:16):
You've given them 27 topics oneverything, from just everything
under the sun.
So what do you actually wantthem to do?
So I was a huge advocate and I'mlike I'm so low on the food
chain, on the org chart, so tospeak right that I can't make
(13:37):
any difference.
But I kept advocating for canwe not do two hours?
Can we do like?
Where does it say in the rulesthat we have to do a two hour
meeting and have eight speakers?
Can't we do one hour?
And and just have threespeakers?
And can't the topics all beconnected?
And it's just this one thing,and and let's just give some
different ways to look at thattopic and and let's leave them
(14:00):
wanting more and and and let'sfocus on what we're, what we're
asking them to do.
And I, I, I got, I made someprogress in that we got the
meetings down to, in someinstances, an hour and a half,
but I just you know, it wasstandard kind of I couldn't find
it written anywhere, but itjust seemed to be cultural that
these meetings needed to be twohours and and then people just
(14:22):
stop coming, a lot of peopledon't show up because it's
overload, and and yet we'redoing that in our organizations.
And so I had a, I had a leaderthat I worked for years ago and
I, um, I would constantly tellhim uh, when I first started
working with him.
I reported into him and, uh, Iwould tell him I read this book
(14:43):
on this and that's amazing to besome leadership book, right.
Like this, back in the dayswhen you go to Barnes and Noble
or Borders or whatever thebookstores, the physical
bookstores were, and so I wouldlove to go, like on a Saturday
morning or Friday night orwhatever, on my way home from
work I'd stop by the bookstore,just walk around, look at the
shiny you know objects.
(15:05):
The different titles be like,oh, this is a really good book
on this.
Or wow, this person who ranthat company wrote a book on how
he or she did this and I'mgonna buy that one.
So I'd come home with three orfour because I couldn't pick
just one, right, because theyall look so interesting, and I'd
read one and I'd talk to myboss about it and I would say,
hey, this book is just soamazing and this book and
(15:27):
whatever.
And he's like do you everconsider this?
What he said to me, it's likedo you ever consider reading
less?
Or going back to the same book,like that's the only book that
you're going to study for thenext three months and you're
going to read it four or fivetimes and you're going to really
pick out some things toimplement in your life.
(15:48):
And I it was kind of a, it waskind of a downer to me when he
brought it up to me.
I'm like, oh, I really thinkthis is like a strength of mine
that I'm reading all of thesethings.
But he was absolutely right.
And so there are a few booksthat I have listened to.
So I implemented that changeand I still would come home from
(16:09):
with four books, but I would, Iwould, I the the.
The pivot I made was I'm goingto read the book three or four
times.
And now in today's day and age,what I do is I go back and I
listen to the audio book, or I'mnot doing yard work or I'm
doing whatever, and I'll go backand I'll listen to chapter four
, I'll listen to chapter seven,or I want to implement this
(16:31):
particular thing, or I'll find apodcast episode where that
author was a guest on a certainshow and he or she is going
deeper on this thing, she'sgoing deeper on this thing, and
so they're reinforcing in mymind as I'm listening to that
podcast interview, or I'mwatching that YouTube video, or
I'm watching that person onstage deliver a keynote around
that book.
It's reinforcing those ideas.
(16:51):
So the takeaway is in so manyof our organizations we've got
to dial it back.
We've got to pick fewerleadership competencies.
Like you're giving me stuff onhow to be inclusive, how to
build trust, how to do this, howto be a better coach, how to
listen to feedback more, how todo that, like it just constantly
(17:14):
we, we just work with so manyof these HR and L and D teams
that are making these beautifulresources, pamphlets and
brochures and then you, they'rereinforcing pillars and
priorities and um vision andprojects and we're sending all
of these beautiful resources outto the leaders across the
(17:36):
organization and nobody knowswhich one's important, which one
we're actually doing.
They can't do it all.
You want to be paralyzed.
You want to be.
You want to be just have nomotion.
You want to just get stuck byan overwhelm.
Tell me to work on 80 differentthings.
(17:59):
I don't know what it is thatyou think is actually important,
because you can't possiblythink all of this is important.
You can't possibly think we'regoing to do all these things,
and so in our personal lives wepick just a few things.
You know what this month, I'mactually just going to focus on
the basement.
You know what?
(18:19):
This month, I'm actually goingto take a course and I'm going
to work on the basement.
You know what this month I'mactually going to?
I'm going to take a course andI'm going to work on becoming a
better cook, a chef, baker,whatever it is.
That's what I'm digging into,and it can only be two or three
things at once.
It cannot be 15.
I see this everywhere in my lifePeople who have so many good
intentions, so many greatdesires, they're reading so much
(18:41):
, they're listening to so much.
They've got this task list of80 million great things, and
then you know what?
They get home and they're tiredand they the list is
overwhelming, and so they donone of it, literally none of it
.
And the exact same thing istrue in organizations.
We send out all of this content, we get people all of these
resources.
What are they executing on noneof it.
(19:01):
We've got no measurablemovement.
And so I hate to say it, butit's the reality.
All of the energy you'respending building those
resources is actually wastedwasted.
It's a disservice, it's not agood thing, it's not a strength
(19:24):
of your organization.
Sending out a book or anarticle to the team every week
or every few days, that you'reactually doing them a disservice
.
So pick a few.
It's these three corecompetencies, it's these two
core skills, it's this area.
We're going to get really goodat giving and receiving feedback
(19:47):
as a leadership team, likewe're going to finally make some
progress in this area.
That's the focus for the nextthree, six months and we're
going to we're going to lay outhow to do that and how we're
going to hold people accountable, or it's we're going to finally
get focused and prioritizing onthe right things, the things
that really move the needle forour organization.
(20:09):
So we're going to teach ourmanagers how to do that, and so
we're just going to do that whenleaders do this.
This is why we've had such goodluck with Clarity Al.
It's been so powerful.
Why it's so sticky is becausewhen these executives of
organizations, whether they havea thousand employees or a
hundred thousand employees, whenthe executive or executive team
(20:31):
comes out and says these arethe three most important things,
guess what happens?
Movement.
There's actual, detectable,measurable progress towards
something because we narrow thefocus.
And the same is true in ourdesire to improve, to be more
(20:52):
effective, to grow, tostrengthen our ability.
So, in your own life, narrowthe focus.
What are the two or threethings that's it Cause you're
not going to do the 10.
It's not going to happen.
Can you just finally look atyour life over the last three,
four, five, 20 years and say,yep, whenever I've had all this
(21:13):
big list, not much has gottendone, or it's random things that
I check off the list.
So you're going to narrow thefocus of where you want to
improve and get better andyou're going to do the same
thing.
What I would suggest, what I'madvocating, is you do the exact
same thing for your team, foryour organization less noise.
(21:34):
Take the complex, make it simple.
It's only these few things.
That's what we're focusing on.
It's only these few things.
That's what we're focusing on.
When you narrow the focus, youactually get movement.
When you narrow the focus, youactually see progress.
When you narrow the focus, youfeel more energized because it's
doable, it's attainable, yousee the path.
(21:57):
When you've got 10 destinations, you don't even get up off the
couch because I don't know whereto go first and look at all the
moving and driving and workthat's needed to get to those 10
destinations.
So pick one, pick three, picktwo.
Narrow the focus.
That's what I'm advocating inthis episode of the Lead in 30
(22:20):
podcast.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
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