Focus and Communication

Hopefully this week you have paid attention to your focus when you communicate. Is your focus on you, your material, or the people you are speaking with? If it is not on the people what types of concrete things can you do or need to change to get better at this?

When I am communicating with people, most of my attention is probably on that person and on the team, but I have to admit that some of my focus is on myself. The majority of my thinking is that when I communicate a goal to someone, I need them to commit to doing this because without them doing it the team would suffer. If they did it, it would make them better as a player and they would contribute more to the team. However, I will say that there have been instances before where I have only communicated things to my teammates and encouraged things to them because I thought it would make me look better. I realize that this is the wrong way to think, and it doesn't happen very often, but it has happened. I think that your focus when you are listening is just as important. When I am really listening to someone, my focus is on them. I am making eye contact and comprehending what they have to say. If you aren't listening to them and you are only hearing them, you can't possibly be a good leader. In an earlier post, I quoted John Maxwell from one of his works on how "The Best Leaders are Listeners". In this piece, he says "When we hear without really listening, our leadership is bound to suffer - and so will our followers". I think this is an important statement because it shows that if our focus is not on the people we are communicating with, we will never truly understand what they are trying to tell us and we won't be any more knowledgable than how we were from the beginning. So, the things that I can do to be more focused when I am communicating with people is to take my time in listening to them. By this, I mean that I need to listen and hear what they are saying, then take the time to understand what their intentions are.