SPENDING TIME ON PROJECTS THAT HE CONSIDERED UNIMPORTANT was driving Carlos insane.
Carlos is an excellent leader. He’s turned around every business that he’s led, and the people who work for him are loyal, and under his guidance, they have quickly become powerful leaders themselves. He’s exceptionally good at what he does, which is why wasting his time is so frustrating to him.
It’s not that his success is based on being efficient. He’s actually not particularly efficient. His success is a result of Carlos’s ability to target his efforts.
Carlos is unusually adept at opportunity spotting. He notices and relentlessly pursues unique opportunities that give his firm a big win or a strategic edge. Spending time outside his particular talent threatens to create a double whammy for Carlos.
Whammy one is about what he is doing: he’s spending time on things he’s not good at.
Whammy two is about what he’s not doing: searching for the unique opportunity for a big win or a strategic edge. Those opportunities don’t come often and may be missed. Carlos feels lucky to have an insight when he does. If he’s distracted, he fears the insight will pass him by.
I work with many CEOs as well as members of their leadership teams, and my experience is that Carlos is not an exception; he’s the norm. Most leaders—in fact, most people who are highly successful—succeed because of a very narrow but important and unusual set of skills. We may be good at many things but we are truly great at only a small few. Becoming CEO doesn’t change that.
That’s why Carlos—like many of us—has a heightened sensitivity, almost a desperate fear, of being sucked into activities outside his strengths. We all should. Otherwise we will be drawn into mediocrity, where we don’t do ourselves—or our organizations—any good.
But the threat to Carlos is deeper than that. People who are great at something often don’t know exactly where their greatness comes from. They have a sense that it’s bigger than they are. And with that sense comes a fear that the magic is ephemeral and that if they distract themselves, it will disappear. That fear is legitimate.
But here’s the thing: even though we fear being distracted from our sweet spot, and even though it’s tremendously counter-productive, most of us still spend the majority of our time outside it. Over forty-two thousand people have taken a distraction quiz at www.peterbregman.com and 73 percent agree or strongly agree that they don’t spend enough time at work in their sweet spot, doing work they’re really good at and enjoy the most. That’s a massive waste of time and talent.
You have gifts that make you exceptional. If you’re distracted—even if it’s your boss who is asking you to be distracted—you, and she, will regret it.
So how can you avoid being distracted? Two ways:
1. Recognize what it is that makes you exceptional.
Time management isn’t primarily about using minutes well, it’s about using yourself well. And using yourself well means spending most of your time in your sweet spot, which is at the intersection of your strengths, weaknesses, differences, and passions. Carlos is ahead of the game; he already knows where he’s exceptional. Whether you admit it publicly or not, you probably do too. Yet surprisingly, our knee-jerk reaction is to shy away from our sweet spots. Emphasizing our strengths feels too arrogant, exposing our weaknesses feels too vulnerable, standing out from the crowd feels too precarious, and focusing on our passions feels too indulgent. But shying away from your greatness doesn’t help you or the people with whom you work. So, clearly identify your sweet spot and go there.
2. Protect your time.
Carlos needs to make sure that the majority of his time is spent making great use of his narrow and exceptional skill set and so do you. Unfortunately, as the results of the distraction quiz suggest, that’s rare. Highly productive people stay focused. It may seem like senior people, because they lead large swaths of an organization, need to excel at a broad array of functions and disciplines. But that’s not the case. Generally, their success is tied to doing a very narrow range of things very well and for the most successful, exceptionally well.
When Carlos asked me for advice, I told him to do everything he could to extract himself from those projects that drew him away from his sweet spot.
“Seeing the opportunities that will bring a big win or a strategic edge is your signature,” I reminded Carlos. “It’s what makes you such a valuable asset to your business. The projects that draw you away from that may or may not be a waste of time in general but, clearly, they are a waste of your time.”
If you find yourself spending a lot of time doing work you are not good at and don’t enjoy, pause and refocus your energies on your sweet spot. Spend your energy where you can make the highest and best use of you.