High Performing Business – Influence – Attention Intention
Michelle LaBrosse, CCPM, PMP, PMI-ACP, RYT
Do you focus your attention on those things you can influence or those things that make you angry or concerned? To achieve any level of success requires aligning your attention with your intentions (goals).
About a decade ago, I kicked off a conference for a group of 5000 project managers at a large telecommunications company. Before the conference, as a way to prepare for the presentation, I had the project managers participate in a short survey on how effective they felt in their project management positions. The survey results were interesting – the project managers who felt they had sufficient authority to do their jobs, also felt the most effective whereas the ones who did not feel like they had the authority they needed and people in authority over them did not value project management, did not feel as effective. While this result is not all that surprising, I was able to surmise why this was so. When people are able to influence what happens in their environment, they are able to effect the changes they would prefer to see. They feel effective and empowered because, well they are.
But what is the main difference between people who can influence their environment and those who cannot? I noticed with the results, it is where they focus their attention. Those who felt effective and had the authority to do their projects focused their attention on what it was they could in fact influence. They set their intention – to be effective with their project, and they focused their attention on what it would take to make that happen.
What gets me thinking about this today is the level of frustration and anger exhibited by many people over this election for both candidates. While this might make sense to some, focusing attention on what we cannot control, but what concerns, creates impotence. For me, setting an intention to achieve the goals and projects that truly matter to me, and then focusing my attention in that direction, has significantly increased my influence; far more than being angry and complaining about things for which I have very little control. In the Cheetah Certified Project Manager program, Cheetah Learning students master using their intention to focus attention to achieve their goals at Cheetah speed. It’s this level of mastery that propels Cheetah students up the ranks in the organizations they serve.
