19 Jan Staying Focused

Keeping the focus on the client is a key role of a business coach and mentor.

Our focus needs to be 100% on the client and their agenda.

What this means is putting all of the attention on the client and keeping your agenda out of the way.

It’s really important as a coach to make sure that the coaching session stays on track and does not degenerate into a general discussion or chat.

It’s also important to ensure the coachee doesn’t digress too much or get caught up in too much detail.

Staying focused can involve summarising and guiding the flow of the conversation back to a framework such as the GROW model, using further questioning.

It can also mean interjecting from time to time to pull things back on track.

Getting good focus is one skill for the client too.

Focus as a day-to-day function of life can be relatively easy. Yet focusing on the right things involves completely different challenges.

In an ever changing and pressurised world, we often ask ourselves:

Is it the right focus?

How focused am I?

It is easy to lose focus?

How easy is it to regain focus?

Being clear about purpose is a vital element of focus. It is the ‘Why’ of focus and its goal, task or target. Without purpose a task can turn into a nightmare.

We all encounter a variety of negative setbacks.

The one single element that makes the difference between going under and making it, is what we focus on.

We can slip off focus without realising and expend much time and energy on ‘non-essentials’:

Dealing with what’s urgent and not getting to focus on what’s most important.

Putting out fires – disrupting our focus – being a bit of a ‘headless chicken’.

Over-analysing – being overly concerned with the minutiae.

“Being in the job as opposed to being on the job”.

Feeling sorry for yourself – e.g. getting stuck in being the victim, martyr, fool, etc …”not my fault Gov”.

Waiting – expecting others to do their part and progress things toward the goal. Waiting for something that never happens.

Life doesn’t stand still, circumstances and goal posts change – focus too. That is why having a strategic overview is important, it is where we set our bearings.

Having a strategic overview is a powerful driving force and attractor to assist momentum, progress and staying focused.

Learn more about the art of staying focused.