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Coach’s Corner By Shelley Row


Seeing Beyond the Details: An Essential Insightful Leadership Skill I


t was dark and I was in unfamiliar ter- ritory. I was aboard a friend’s boat on


Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, at night, headed home, when he said, “You should drive. It will be good practice.” “Good practice?” I thought. “Is he cra- zy? There are lights everywhere.” As I looked across the horizon and saw white lights, yellow lights, red lights, green lights, blinking lights, bright lights and faint lights. “Which do I follow?” I asked him.


He said, “You’ll learn to sort out the important lights, that help you navigate to the dock, from the irrelevant ones that are a distraction.” Wise words that also apply to you as an insightful leader. You navigate your organization towards the future and along the way there are countless pieces of information and dis- tractions that can take you off course – if you let them. How do you sort out the relevant from the irrelevant? Here are three tips I learned from executives I in- terviewed. • Have a clear objective. You can only navigate to your goal if you are clear on your goal. Yeah, I know … that seems obvious. And, I’m continually amazed at how often managers lack clarity on the goal. We breeze past the difficulty of finding clarity in the rush to act. Clarity immediately reduces distractions. Clarity allows you to ignore all inputs that don’t align. Without clarity, it would be like me aiming for any creek when I wanted Ab- erdeen Creek.


To get clarity, ask yourself, 


  “What is the desired outcome?”


“What specifically needs to be accom- plished?”


“What specific action do I want to oc- cur?” Don’t settle for generalizations. Be specific


From a place of clarity, identify the key next steps. These steps help to retain clarity and focus along the way. Activities


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that aren’t in alignment with the steps to the objective can be dealt with later. • Control the tangents. Be brutal about this. Everyone you talk to will try (maybe unintentionally and maybe intentional- ly) to take you off on a tangent. If you stay laser focused on the objective, you can tactfully redirect the conversation while staying aware that other issues will be dealt with later. When someone tries


to divert your attention, say, 


“That’s a good point, and we need to stay focused on the goal. We can come back to that point once we deal with this.”





“I appreciate you bringing this up. Let’s put this in the parking lot to ad- dress next.”





“I realize this is a concern of yours and we will address it, but for now, we need to stay focused on the goal for today.”


As I scanned the darkness, the hori- zon filled with lights. But I didn’t need the circling light of Thomas Point Light- house or the red and green lights of other boats. I began to train my eyes to discern the lights on the markers that indicated the way back. It went like this: Marker light … got it in my sights. Light- house light: it’s out of the way; I won’t run aground; no need to consider it further. Other boats: They are not in the


way and not coming my way; no need to consider them further. They remain in my periphery but didn’t distract from the goal. How do you sift out the tan- gents, set them aside, and stay focused on the objective? • Check in along the way. As we mo- tored back toward the dock, the navi- gational chart told me which marker should be in view next. Did it appear when and where it was supposed to? Check. We were still on course. As an insightful leader, it is wise to check your course along the way. Are you still fo- cused on the objective? Are you still tak- ing the steps you identified or have you succumbed to a tangent? Check in along the way and make course corrections as needed. You, as an insightful leader, are the keeper of focus. In addition to reaching your goal efficiently, your staff will feel more secure and calm because of your clear-headed focus. 


Named by Inc. as one of the top 100 leadership speakers, Shelley Row, P.E., CSP, is an engineer and former government and association executive. Shelley’s leadership work focuses on developing insightful


leaders who can see beyond the data. Her work grows your bottom-line through enhanced decision-making, motivation and teaming. Learn more at www.shelleyrow.com.


July-August 2018 • AUTOMOTIVE RECYCLING


iStockphoto.com/Andrey Suslov


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