Patrick Smyth

A very astute person said that if you don’t know where you are going you are guaranteed to end up wherever you are. But where will that be exactly? In the story of Alice in Wonderland, Alice arrived at a fork in the road and asked the Cheshire cat which way she should go. The cat replied with a question, “Where do you want to end up?” Alice replied that she did not know, and the cat wisely added, “Then it does not matter which road you choose.”

Of course, in life and in business it is not necessarily a physical destination that we seek. Rather we need a clear vision of our purpose, what we are proposing to achieve and the outcomes we want to produce.

We all recognize the CEO who doesn’t seem to be able to make a decision. Every decision appears to go into a black hole, or worse – into analysis by a committee! How about the creative entrepreneur who seems to think they can launch five different business ideas at the same time? Then there’s the IT Department that is in permanent crisis mode putting out fires one after the other. What about the VP of Marketing that can’t seem to explain what he spent all that money on? Many creative people are challenged by taking on too many projects at the same time with no particular sense of priority.

Sometimes people wander aimlessly from one project to another without making any significant progress in any of them – the grass is always greener on the other side. Aesop told the fable of the ant and the grasshopper: The grasshopper spent all summer singing, while the ant was busy storing food. The grasshopper jumped from one green leaf to the next devouring his way through the summer, without a care in the world, and without any thought to what came next. Then winter came, and everyone knows how the fable ends. If you have no focus or purpose to the work you do you can be sure to end up in a place you don’t want to be – or even out of business altogether.

Other people will focus on minute details to keep themselves busy and to convince themselves that they are doing something productive. That’s rather like reorganizing your sock drawer in an earthquake. In business, these behaviors and lack of focus can be disastrous. At the strategic level, business focus comes from establishing a clear long term vision and mission for your business. Then all of your plans and activities can be aligned with the goal of achieving that mission. There will always be distractions and new opportunities and challenges that come along during the journey. By anchoring yourself to your mission, you will greatly enhance your potential to be successful.

If you’re an existing business and struggling for clarity, where else could you look to for help in focusing yourself? A really good starting point to look for inspiration is your customers. Ask them why they buy from you? Ask them if they are delighted with your product or service. If not, why not? If yes, then why? Both answers lead you to a place of focusing on correcting something in order to do it better. Or it could mean focusing on what you’re already doing well and doing more of it for more customers.

If you are a new startup venture and don’t have any customers yet, go out and ask people who would be good target buyers of your product. Ask them what they think about the idea and whether they would purchase it. If not, why not? If yes, then why?

Perhaps you find that things seem to be going rather well with your customers, but you are still not gaining the clarity of focus you need. Then you need a new approach. An excellent next place to look is at your biggest competitors. What do they do well, and why? What don’t they do well, and why? The answer to those questions might tell you about where you need to focus. Compare the information gathered to what your customer told you. This may yield new issues that you need to deal with based on competitor actions.

Maybe you can preempt them and take advantage of the situation, or else they are most likely going to make your life difficult. Having a clear focused direction can play a big role in causing competitors to react to you rather than forcing you to react to them. As Wayne Calloway, CEO of PepsiCo shared, “Nothing focuses the mind better than the constant sight of a competitor who wants to wipe you off the map.”

Doing a little bit of lot of different things can keep you very busy, but that can be at the expense of real progress. You must choose a direction – ideally focused on your vision - in order to make any progress at all. Otherwise you will be like Alice, wandering together aimlessly, not going anywhere in particular, yet guaranteed to end up wherever you are.

Patrick Smyth is a Business Navigator and coach to CEOs of high growth and emerging businesses. Creating compelling strategic plans, leadership and management practices, and effective communication to achieve success. www.innovationhabitude.com