#8 Concentration

Great bands play by their unique strengths.

My band experience taught me several lessons about unique strengths. First, every person possesses a number of universal personal-character attributes, or “talent themes,” that when combined with intentional focus, practice and investment result in an individual’s tendency to develop certain skills more quickly. I came to realize that great musical bands play to the strengths of their bandmates with perfect balance.

In the business world, great teams are like a great orchestra. When every member plays to his or her unique strengths, a beautiful harmony is created.

Great teams know how to harness their team members for these four domains of strength.

Relationship Building:

Those strong in the relationship building themes have an innate ability to take the human component into the equation. They tend to be strong in emotional intelligence. They look at how individuals fit into the bigger pictures and can create pathways for them to thrive. They make strong relational connections that bind a group together around a cause, idea or each other.

Strategic Thinking: When a plan needs to be made, or a new idea created for solving a problem, those strong in strategic thinking can help accomplish that. Whether it’s solving a current problem, or dreaming about how to overcome tomorrow’s challenge, the strategic thinking ones can take a thought or idea and look for the best way to move forward.

Executing: Often known as the “get it done” individuals, these folks are inherently strong in execution. They tend to get things done with speed, precision, and accuracy and put in the hard work now, so that when it’s time to move, they are prepared and ready.

Influencing: This is the group that makes things happen. They can take charge, speak up and, most importantly, be heard. These are the folks you want in the room when you need to reach a broader audience or meet a bigger goal as they can influence others to act.

Concentration is also where your 80/20 rule is applied. Great teams understand and operate in this well. 20% of effort you put in something can determine 80% of results that you wished for. When comes to business, not only effort that gives you the result that you want. 20% of your customers will give you 80% of the sales that you want to achieve.

“Those who ignore the 80/20 Rule are doomed to average returns, those who use it will bear the burden of exceptional achievements” – Richard Koch

“20% of your activities account for 80% of your results.” – Brian Tracy

In a business sense, finding the 80/20 ratios is a must for optimising performance. Business leaders should find the products or services that generate the most income (the 20 percent) and drop the rest (the 80 percent) that only provide marginal benefits. You should utilize our precious time working on the parts of the business that you can improve significantly with your core strengths and leave the other tasks that are outside your best 20 percent to others in the team. Work hardest on elements that work hardest for you. Reward the best employees well. Drop the bad clients and focus on upselling and improving service to the best clients.

When you focus on what you need to focus on based on the 80/20 rules, you can oversee a lot of things. Being proactive is one of great strategies when you are an employer for your business or working in an organization. You will be prepared and have a solution to counter the issue before it happens. Focus is very important as it is the start of strategic things like decision making, solving problems and setting your goals. It is one of the key to being successful because you can achieve amazing results if you are not distracted.