FOCUS: The Magical Business Superpower

Focus is a business superpower.

No matter what industry you’re in or how big or small your business is—when your organization is focused, EVERYTHING gets easier: decisions, execution, accountability, less chaos and better performance.

The Cost of Scattered Focus

Unfortunately, the problem so many businesses will inevitably face, a lack of organizational focus. And it’s not because teams & people aren’t working hard. It’s because priorities are unclear. And when priorities are unclear, organizational focus becomes scattered. Every team starts interpreting what’s important in their own way.

This is where the chaos cycle begins: Inconsistent execution turns into slower than expected progress, which then shows up in the form of poor performance. More priorities get introduced to turn around performance, and the chaos cycle starts spinning faster. Every time.

The Rowing Team Analogy

Let’s use a visual: think of your business like a rowing team. A full crew, trained and prepared. Every person in the boat has a specific role and function. But most importantly, everyone is rowing in sync, in the same direction, toward a clearly defined finish line.

This is what organizational focus looks like when it’s harnessed. It’s powerful. It’s coordinated. It multiplies the performance of the entire team. The sum becomes far greater than the individual parts.

A Challenge for Your Leadership Team

Now let me throw a challenge at you.

Imagine I show up to your next leadership meeting and ask this simple question:

“What are the top 2–3 priorities for the business right now? And why are these the most important priorities?”

What happens in that moment?

If your team is like most leadership teams I speak with, there’s a good chance I’ll hear several different answers from the leaders in the room.

And here’s the problem with that. When leaders are not clear on what matters most, think of the chaos that ripples through the organization. Employees feel it.

They start to wonder, “What actually is the priority right now?” Direction starts to feel like it’s shifting week to week. Momentum stalls. Confidence erodes. Frustration builds.

It’s like that rowing team stepping out of the shared boat and getting into individual boats.

Even if each leader works harder—puts in 5x the effort—their boats will never move as fast as the team boat moving in full alignment. The power of the team is lost in a sea of individual effort.

Now imagine the opposite.

What if every leader in the room gives the same answer? Not only the same priorities, but the same reasons why those are the priorities that are the most critical for the business, right now?

That’s what organizational clarity looks like. That’s alignment. That’s getting the entire team back in the same boat, rowing hard in the same direction, toward the same goal.

Focus transforms performance. It doesn’t happen by trying to do everything at once, it happens by harnessing organizational focus on the few, most impactful priorities that have an outsized impact on the business making forward progress.

Final Thought

If focus is your superpower, clarity is the engine behind it.

Make it a habit to check: Does everyone in your organization know what matters most right now—and why?

If they don’t, start there. Because everything else depends on it.