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Focus if more important now than ever!

  In the late 1800's Max Weber coined the term 'the Iron Cage of Bureaucracy' for the human tendency to focus on the process or activity - not what we are trying to achieve or why we are doing it. Despite the knowledge of the problem being around for a long time most organisations unintentionally reward activity instead of impact. And the cost is enormous. If your workplace feels like a constant race …inboxes buzzing, Slack threads multiplying, everyone sprinting from one “urgent” thing to the next, you’re not imagining it.  And when urgency becomes the default, the cost is enormous: Scattered attention, shallow work, and teams who feel busy but rarely feel effective. Business strategist David Finkel names the problem clearly.  We’ve built cultures that celebrate motion, not progress. But there’s one shift that changes everything: Focus is not a personal trait …it’s a cultural choice. Leaders set the tone. Teams follow the signals.  And organizations either protect deep work… or they drown it in noise. When you build a focus‑based culture, you create an environment where people can actually think, solve, and contribute at their highest level.  That’s where innovation lives.  That’s where meaningful work happens.

Finkel Outlines Five Principles That Make The Difference:

• Busyness isn’t productivity. Activity without intention is just churn.
• Not everything urgent is actually important. The prioritisation matrix is still a great tool. Pin it to your wall and actively use it when tasks come in.
• Leaders shape the culture. What you reward becomes the norm. Are you encouraging your people to look after themselves, take breaks, focus on the priority activities, and have focused time. I coached a 'non-performer' once, we quickly established the things he was working on weren't the managers priorities which is why he seen as a non-performer. All he did each morning was take five minutes with his manager to agree the priorities for the day and the 'problem' was fixed.
• Deep work must be protected. Focus is a strategic asset, not a luxury. Create some distraction free good thinking time each day for your people to tackle the most important work - and do it for yourself!
• Clear priorities reduce noise and keep everyone on track. If you are working on more than five things your brain is spinning and you are feeling overwhelmed. Narrow it down to what your brain can hold (three - four things), people feel focused, they are not overwhelmed and they get a sense of accomplishment when they make progress on important work.

A focus‑based culture isn’t quieter — it’s smarter.  It’s calmer.  And it produces better work with less chaos.

How to build trust

  This is a great article taping into some of the key things leaders do to burn trust and what they can do to build it. Building trust can be achieved by:

1. Measuring trust and acting on the measure
2. Taking the time to explain why a decision was made results in 4.3x more trust. We consistently find this when we are helping organisations through change processes - the purpose of the change is crucial to acceptance.
3. Confronting the issues that employees care about results in 6.5x more trust. I recently delivered a talk on leadership in an AI environment. I concluded with John Galbraith's observation "All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership." If we talk about these issues, we show we are aware of concerns and are prepared to address them even if it is hard. Thats the leader people want to follow.
4. Developing trust building behaviours in leaders.

Trust may seem like its an elusive quality but it is definitely something we can work on.

Great leaders share three behaviours

  Research consistently shows leadership that is people focused and enables employees to perform is the most effective - Servant and Level 5 Leadership are great examples of this. There are lots of ways of expressing this, whether it be managerial grid's people vs results focus; John Maxwells 'be devoted to your people but expect excellence'; Gilbert Enoka 'have the fierce determination of a viking but the heart of a mother'; or Brené Brown 'have a stiff back and a soft front'. This article adds another perspective to how this can work from a leadership coach, Marcel Schwantes. He writes highly effective leaders:

• Put their people first. Not in the corporate‑poster way — in the practical, everyday way. They clear roadblocks, offer real support, and create psychological safety so their team can think, speak, and perform without fear. Their power comes from elevating others, not protecting themselves.
• Share credit generously. Great leaders don’t make themselves the hero (in fact Level 5 leadership found the hero charismatic leaders damaged their organisations in the medium to long term). They highlight contributions, celebrate wins publicly, and make sure the right people get recognized. That simple act builds trust faster than any team‑building exercise. NZ research found this had the biggest impact on workers wellbeing - people getting recognition/acknowledgement at work were 30x more likely to be doing well mental health wise.
• Own their mistakes. When things go sideways, they don’t deflect, spin, or blame. They step up, take responsibility, and model accountability. That honesty doesn’t weaken them — it makes people respect them more.

Most of the key leadership models currently have humility as a key component - enabling 'putting their people first'. Jim Collins found that the humility in Level 5 leaders lead them to do the last two bullets - attribute successes to their team and failures to themselves. Attributing failures to themselves resulted in Level 5 leaders reflecting on what they could have done differently, increasing their self awareness and learning from these situations whilst fronting problems for their team. As Nelson Mandela said:

It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership. 

Humility is not easy however! And that's where strengths and purpose come in. We need to have some rocks to hang onto to live in the humble space!

42% of Employee Turnover Is Preventable – Coaching is the answer!

According to Gallup’s latest research, here’s what’s actually driving employees out the door — and why many leaders still don’t see it...

1. People Don’t Feel Cared About as Humans This is the biggest one — and the most ignored.  When employees feel invisible, undervalued, or treated like interchangeable parts, disengagement is inevitable. Feeling genuinely cared about by a manager isn’t “soft leadership" - it's effective leadership. John Maxwell framed this as "be devoted to your people, but expect excellence".
2. Weak Management is Eroding Commitment  Many managers were promoted because they were great individual contributors — not because they know how to lead people. The result? • Poor communication • Little to no coaching • Recognition that’s either rare or nonexistent
3. People are Guessing What Matters Confusion kills motivation. When people don’t understand what’s expected of them — or how their work connects to something bigger — they stop caring. Purpose doesn’t come from mission statements. It comes from clarity. When you don't have clarity your workload becomes overwhelming leading to stress.
4. Personal Growth Has Flatlined People aren’t just quitting jobs. They’re quitting stagnation. When learning stops, engagement fades. Employees want to grow skills, expand responsibility, and see a future.
5. Burnout Is Being Treated Like a Badge of Honor Overwork, constant urgency, unrealistic workloads, and zero flexibility are pushing even high performers to rethink everything. Burnout isn’t a resilience problem. It’s a systems problem. When stress becomes normal our personal productivity and our leadership effectiveness are significantly reduced. If you are working 70+ hours per week, you have probably achieved about as much as if you had worked 55 hours.

Coaching is the answer When a manager has one meaningful conversation a week with each direct report, employees are four times more likely to be highly engaged, regardless of whether they are a frontline, hybrid or fully remote worker. Gallup research shows these conversations are more meaningful when they focus on goals and priorities, recognition for recent work, collaboration, and using employees’ strengths. Strategic People Group's Leader's Coach course equips managers with the skills and confidence to have regular informal conversations to prioritise and assist with problem solving as well as monthly reviews of progress on development and performance goals using the persons strengths.

The Art of Giving and Receiving Advice

  One of my favourite pieces of research is the finding that people giving advice are more likely to change their behaviour than those receiving it. This is because the person giving advice is actually thinking about it and processing the information at a deeper level. The person receiving the advice is just hearing it. And as well know, most of what we hear we forget. Harvard Business Review nails it: Great advice isn’t a monologue — it’s a brainstorm.You don’t need to be a guru. You need to be a collaborator. Start Doing This:

• Ask questions before you offer solutions.
• Share your experience with humility and empathy.
• Help the person tailor your advice to their own messy, real-life situation.

Stop Doing This: 

• Launch into advice without listening first.
• Assume your advice is a perfect fit.

Bottom line: Think of advice not as a 1-way transfer of wisdom, but as a joint brainstorming session. This is the essence of coaching. When it’s done well, people don’t just hear advice — they actually use it!