As a tech leader, you may know that having the proper mindset and sufficient focus on your job is essential. But for most professionals that aren’t in tune with their thoughts and feelings, “mindset” and “focus” are merely often-repeated buzzwords. So, what do these things mean in practice?
A leader has a lot of things they worry about and a lot of milestones to reach — all in the process of developing and growing into a tech leader that people genuinely want to work for. Unsurprisingly, all of this starts from within, or rather, your mindset.
Your mindset is your inner perspective of yourself — it’s how you place yourself in the context of your professional surroundings. It’s how you manage situations around you and respond to them in a leadership capacity. And sure, you may have proven that you have the chops to be placed in a managerial position — but once you’re there, what kind of mindset do you need to be in to prove you’re worthy of your place in the hierarchy?
The Importance of Focus
Every great leader is, essentially, a quick and effective problem-solver. And being both efficient and effective requires one thing: focus.
A healthy dose of mental focus allows you to recognize anything that might be a problem and react to it promptly. Remember, you only have so much time during each day; you can’t afford to devote your attention to every single issue. That’s why focus matters — with a focused mindset, you can choose what gets your attention correctly. But how does focus actually work?
A car purchase is a good example. As most people would tell you, once you buy a certain model in a certain color, one thing starts happening — soon enough, you see the exact same car everywhere. Have people been buying the car en masse at the same time as you? Statistically, not likely.
The psychological explanation is far more simple: now that you own the car, you’ve simply started noticing it more in your surroundings because your eyes are attuned to it.
As a technology leader, you’ve got an entire highway of cars — or information — speeding past you all the time. What you need to do is to put your brain in a mindset that helps you notice the most important car each time.
In other words, you need to recognize the truly important points in the abundance of noise that all leadership positions are immersed in. Dial into what you should really be focusing on, and work on that — soon enough, you’ll see the benefits of spending your mental energy so wisely.
Remember: a messy mind doesn’t make good decisions. It’s as simple as that.
Focus allows you to always have the bigger picture in mind — in other words, your long-term personal goals. And once you have a clear mental “line of sight” of your goals, the way towards them will be clearer as well. The right mindset reveals what’s truly important to you and clears the path towards it — all you have to do is take a deep breath, focus, and take that first step.
If you are interested in hearing more, make sure to check out my podcast Today’s Top Leaders.