Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) is widely recognized as one of the world’s greatest sculptors and painters. His true passion was always-sculpting, however, so initially he described himself as a scultore, only later coming to eye even this general description of his profession with suspicion, when he had developed a deeper sense of his artistic destiny. Michelangelo’s feel for stone was very special. For instance, when his sculpture of Night sleeping inspired Giovanni Strozzi to pen an epigram, he duly responded in verse himself, writing: “Sleep is dear to me, and being of stone is dearer.”1
Although Michelangelo’s true mastery of painting is undisputed, during his lifetime he had always been reluctant to indulge in it, deeming it, “something for women.” In letters and poems he repeatedly stressed, “I am no painter.”2 Had Pope Julius II not forced Michelangelo to paint, he would have stuck to sculpting. The commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, on which Michelangelo started working in May 1508, was something the artist felt he had been forced into, an imposition that was beneath his dignity and talents. Worse still, he felt he had been “given the cold shoulder,” because the fact that Bramante had been assigned to pull down the Basilica of St. Peter and build the new cathedral for the Pope seemed to Michelangelo like a victory for his opponents. By contrast, the terse commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel called for “twelve apostles with a canopy of ornaments.”3
If there is any such thing as a “secret” to effectiveness, then it is focus on one thing at a time. Michelangelo was only too aware of this. He knew that all the sculptures he still wanted to create, which already existed in his mind’s eye, would only see the light of day if he single-mindedly concentrated on sculpture. In other words, he was aware of his unique strength. For wonderful though his paintings might be, there were other wonderful painters about, whereas nobody but Michelangelo could take a raw piece of stone and so masterfully sculpt it into a David, Bacchus, Moses, or Pietà. The fact that Michelangelo also succeeded in achieving great feats outside painting and sculpting, such as taking charge of the construction of the Church of St. Peter, whose cupola he also designed, earned him the reputation as a genius—even during his own lifetime. The reverence in which Michelangelo was held among the people was reflected in their calling him Il Divino, “the Divine one.”
Individuals or organizations out to achieve something notable have to focus. Below I expand on this key principle, first in relation to managers, and then in the context of an organization.
Managers always have far more things of importance to do than time in which to do them. The more competent managers are, the more things they could theoretically attend to. Yet even with the best time-management skills in the world, they will not be able to focus most of their time on single tasks, because much of it will be decided by others (like customers, superiors, colleagues, employees, or support staff) or be taken up with various company-related obligations.
Realizing this, great achievers exploit a number of valuable “secrets:” First, they always focus on one thing at a time, which enables them to deal with it in far less time than if they tried to attend to several tasks at once. Second, they always do the most important thing first, dropping lesser tasks altogether if at all possible, rather than dealing with them second. Third, they free up and set aside the longest possible contiguous blocks of time in which they can work undisturbed on their most important project. Creating such blocks of time takes effort and self-discipline, but doing so is the key to being productive, especially for knowledge workers. Fourth, they know that the more successfully they manage to spend the time available to them doing what they are best at, the more effective they will be in their endeavor.
People and organizations perform well only when they play to their strengths. Otherwise they underperform. Paradoxically, people who achieve nothing often work harder than everybody else, being unaware of the four “secrets” noted above.
If you focus your efforts, resources, and time, you will not only succeed in completing more tasks, you will also find yourself able to deal simultaneously with more diverse tasks. Both Michelangelo and Herbert von Karajan, one of the most widely admired conductors of the twentieth century, have proved that this apparent contradiction is actually nothing of the sort.
The importance of focusing is well documented. In Adventures of a Bystander, Peter F. Drucker wrote the following about the engineer and architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and the communications theorist Marshall McLuhan: “[They] exemplify to me the importance of being single-minded. The single-minded ones, the monomaniacs, are the only true achievers. The rest, the ones like me, may have more fun; but they fritter themselves away. The Fullers and the McLuhans carry out a ‘mission’; the rest of us have ‘interests.’ Whenever anything is being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a mission.”4
The authors Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola slaved away on their books like men possessed, as did Schubert, Beethoven, and Wagner when working on their music. Michelangelo was still chiseling away at his Pietà Rondanini until six days before he died at the age of 88. Even geniuses like Bach, Handel, Haydn, and Verdi always focused on only one piece at a time, which they finished before starting the next. And if they did interrupt their work, they did so deliberately to let it mature in their minds. Mozart is the big exception, for he was able to create multiple masterpieces simultaneously. But who can compare themselves with Mozart? The rule of thumb is this: The key to success is to take on just a few, carefully selected tasks.
Even geniuses can fritter away their time. We can be pretty sure that this was the case with that universal genius Leonardo da Vinci, who was a painter, natural scientist, engineer, inventor, and architect. Yet spreading his interests so widely meant that there was much Leonardo never finished. The following anecdote speaks volumes: Immediately after Pope Leo X commissioned Leonardo to paint a picture for him, the artist rushed off to buy the oils and herbs to distill into the liquid for the final protective varnish for the painting. This prompted the despairing Pope to exclaim: “Alas, this man is never going to do anything, for he starts to think about finishing the work before it is even begun!”5
Focus is also of considerable importance to organizations. Very highly diversified companies almost invariably fail, mostly because—like individuals—their efforts are insufficiently focused. Assets that are already limited in any organization, like money, physical resources, and—most importantly—capable people, are ineffectively used up because modest advances are made everywhere instead of focusing fully on one thing in a bid to achieve a major breakthrough.
The less diversified an organization is, the easier it is to manage. One of the main advantages of a more focused organization is that people find it easier to understand the relationship between their personal performance and the contribution they make to their organization as a whole. As a result, they focus better, targeting their efforts more on attaining shared objectives and serving that “greater whole.” Successfully diversified companies manage to spread themselves by focusing their various business activities, technologies, and product lines on a shared market, thereby creating a common basis. Alternatively, their various business activities, technologies, and product lines are based on a shared technology. In both scenarios, however, the result is focus, not diversification.
Anyone (and this applies equally to individuals and organizations) who has seen for themselves just how powerful an effect proper focus can have will never again stray from this principle. We can only hazard a guess at what a struggle it must have been for Michelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel and how he suffered doing it. As far back as Fall 1533, Pope Clement VII had commissioned Michelangelo to paint the altar and entrance walls of the Sistine Chapel, each of which is 17 meters high and 13 meters wide. When Clement VII died the following year, his successor Pope Paul III, already an old man by the standards of his day, renewed that commission, thereby forcing Michelangelo to once again relinquish his beloved sculpting of the tomb of Pope Julius II, which he had only just resumed. The artist’s excuses prompted the following angry outburst from Pope Paul III: “I have had this desire for thirty years [that you serve me], and now that I am Pope, am I not to satisfy it? I will tear up this contract [for Pope Julius’ tomb], and, in any case, I intend to have you serve me!”6
This time Michelangelo undertook to paint the entire 738 square feet of wall by himself. He did not even attempt to seek the aid of other painters as he had previously tried when tackling the ceiling of the chapel. Only his faithful servant Urbino assisted him, grinding pigments for his master’s paints. Michelangelo knew that only he could do full justice to the version of The Last Judgment that he saw in his mind’s eye.
“Sono scultore”—“I’m a sculptor,” he is said to have cried out in the quarries when the Pope once again forced him to carry on with his painting. And he even painted a pitiful portrait of himself into The Last Judgment, portraying himself not as one of the redeemed or damned, but as an empty shell, his own pain-racked features clearly recognizable on the flayed skin of St. Bartholomew.
First, focus on a single objective. Second, always do the most important thing first. Third, free up the longest possible contiguous blocks of time to work undisturbed on your most important project. Fourth, draw on your strengths during that time.
To which one or two key tasks could you devote your efforts that make the biggest contribution to your organization’s results?
What can you do within your organization to prompt a discussion that specifically tightens its focus? How will you measure the success of this endeavor?