Focus - The A to Z of Career Growth

This week we take a look at: Focus. The What and How thereof. 

What
* An act of concentrating interest or activity on something: our focus on the customer's requirements.
* Concentrating one’s efforts on a particular area. Could be anything:
    * Punctuality 
    * Communication 
    * Networking/exhibition
* Thus honing skills and specific experience
* Example - industry level focus (high level) or job focus (low level)
How
* Over time an area of focus may develop 
* A long standing interest
* What to focus on: 
    * strengths
    * Areas of interest
    * Weaknesses insofar as they inhibit a strength 
* Example: my work has focused on energy, specifically trading and risk management

Link to the Radio Jamaica interview:
https://youtu.be/ojV5nW1L6-M


#focus #coaching #careergrowth #motivation #jamaica

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back one and all to the latest episode of the My Coach Ben podcast. Thank you very much for stopping by. It's very much appreciated. I would like to make a couple of caveats before we start. One is I've got a bit of a uh sore throat this week. Um there's a there seems to be a bout of uh of the common cold flushing through the house at the moment, um, and I have kind of fallen a little bit victim to that. Not as bad as some of the others, I'll hasten to add. So um, yeah, it has its good and bad side. So, firstly, apologies for my voice, and secondly, uh, if you hear some noise in the background, it's because there's some building work being done on the house, and uh there's a lot of banging and scraping and this, that, and the other going on. So, apologies for that if it comes through in the recording. So, before we um kick off, I would like to give a special mention and a thank you to um Daniela Lee, um Johnny Daly, and Kenneth Reed, who were um on the two live show, which is from Radio Jamaica, who called me uh during the week to give an interview about uh career development and career choices. Um, so that was really nice, and it seemed to go down very well. Uh so thank you guys if you're tuning in, that's uh really appreciated, and um, I believe there's um some interest in doing uh something else going forward. So let's have a chat about that. Uh more than happy to uh to contribute. So thank you very much for that. As usual, if the content floats your boat, remember to like, subscribe, press the notification bell, tell your friends, fam, colleagues, and let's continue to grow the community. That will be very much appreciated. So without further ado, uh let's get into it with uh the next letter. Last week we were on empowerment, and now we will move on to the letter F in the A to Z of career growth, and the letter F for this week will be focus. So, yes, focus will be the focus for this week, and as always, let's start with a definition. And if we go to the Oxford English Dictionary, we will see that focus is defined as an act of concentrating interest or activity on something, and this in itself is something that we can expand on. So, therefore, we can get from that that uh focus is about concentrating one's uh efforts in a particular area, let's say, and this could be anything, it could be um I don't know, you could be someone who's late, so you want to focus on uh being punctual, uh being organized more. You can focus on that, you can focus on communication um in your workplace or with uh with other people, um, and also yeah, anything really. This is what focus is, it's just about paying attention to something, it could be when you're reading. You know, when you're reading, you focus on what you're reading, maybe turn the tele off, find a quiet corner somewhere, and you can focus on on what it is you're reading, and in addition to that, focus is um honing on particular skills and a specific experience, for example, as I just said, communication skills, it could be cooking skills, it could be anything. So, focus is really, as I said, just about concentrating the mind, concentrating your efforts in a specific direction, and this could be whether it's something in your personal life, um, whether it's something to do with yourself, um, you know, it could be a focus on your diet, for example, and it could be something to do with your career, which we'll come on to in a in a short moment. So that's the what, and now we come on to the how. How do we achieve focus? How can we focus on a particular thing? Well, firstly, um, focus is something which essentially is about concentrating on something. Um, so um, for instance, I'll give you quite an abstract example. But each morning I get up and I make breakfast for myself and my daughter, and it's actually very nice to focus on just doing these things, you know, putting the kettle on, making some coffee, preparing some sandwiches for for her lunch and what have you, um, all these kind of things, you know, getting some cereal ready and all these things, and there's all the little noises that go on, and just focusing on these things and not thinking about anything else, and this is actually quite a nice, quite a nice part of the day. So that's something which um is how I have a focus to start the day with, okay, and of course, this is something which we can expand um throughout the day. And focus is something if we want to look at a work context, it's something that you can focus on a particular task in hand. So I don't know if you have a deliverable, you can focus on that. Maybe if there's a quiet area you can find in which to work, then you can do that and you can focus more and give some more attention, but also focus can be over a longer term, and by that I mean let's say an industry or your particular job focus. For example, as you probably know by now, I work in the energy industry, and that's an area that I've focused on over a long time. Um, in terms of the industry itself, I've had a number of different focuses, so whether that's on kind of finance, whether that's on risk management, or whether it's on the more commercial trading side, but these are separate focuses that I've had within a wider area of focus being the energy industry. So, this is focus is something where it has different levels, and that um is how I've been able to develop, if you like, my long-standing interest in the area of which um of which I've worked for the last almost 30 years now. And in so doing, if we look at that on a smaller level, what have I focused on? Um, well, over my career I've I've focused on communication, for example. I focused um when I say communication, that's whether it's going to be you know writing emails in a certain way, whether it's going to be speaking with people at different levels, although I don't really speak to people at different levels in a different way, if I'm honest. Um I just you know, I just um speak as I normally would. So this is not something but just about making sure that I come across in um maybe a more um more lucid or more um clear way when I'm trying to convey information like I hope I'm doing at the moment. So this is something that I've focused on over a period of time. In addition to that, or to build on that, I guess that's an area of of maybe something that um I've been particularly good at over the years. Brings me on to my next point, which is focusing on strengths, and as you often know, I say focus on strengths and not weaknesses, unless these weaknesses are something that um that prohibit your strength from developing. And this is something that we um unpacked or discussed in the Radio Jamaica interview during the week, where the question was, um, how does someone decide on which career to focus on? And uh the answer, or or the one of the possibilities we discussed was about focusing on strengths as opposed to weaknesses, focusing also on the areas of interest. You know, if you're an outdoorsy person and you like working in uh out with nature or what have you, then I think training to be an accountant is probably not the best use of uh use of your ability or your interest because you're you're gonna be you know stuck inside an office most of the time. Um, and it's the same vice versa. You know, if you like uh crunching numbers, um then maybe becoming a sports teacher is probably not going to be the best uh the best choice of career for you. Let's let's look at it that way. So you focus on the things that you're good at, you focus on the things which make you as a person um yeah, feel feel good. The the things that make you want to get up in the morning, you know, the the things as I say which um which drive you. And just to um to draw um the topic to a close, focus is something where we have to be deliberate, and whether this is on a very short term, you know, like making breakfast, like sending an email, um, like reading an article in the newspaper, focus can be something on the short term, but then also there's a wider picture, and this is where focus is very important as well. If you're trying to build a career, or if you're trying to maybe change career as well, then you have to have a different focus. You need to make sure that some in some way, shape, or form that you can focus on the bigger picture, that you keep an eye on where it is you're wanting to go, and this is how you can make sure that the um challenges that may come along can be dealt with efficiently and and and quickly and robustly, and also that you can continue to move in the direction that you want to go. And these things are all about focus, they're all about paying attention and paying attention to the right things and not the the other noise that comes about in our lives as we as we know happens quite a lot. So let's summarize because I'm conscious of my fading voice. In summary, um, what is um is focus? Well, we've seen the definition, it's the act of concentrating interest or activity on something, and we looked at um maybe you know, when we're talking about focusing maybe on um communication or on certain endeavours, this is what focus is, it's the act of um going deep into something, and then for the how we talked about uh focus is something which can be immediate or over a longer period of time, and also over um let's say the the why in a picture or focus, which could be an industry or a particular kind of job, and then the more immediate elements of the picture, which can be how you're doing certain things and how you're improving on various strengths, and how and why and when you do certain things. So that's how we can summarize focus. And if there are some tips or some handy hints, let's say that you have yourself, please do mention those in the dis in the uh in the comments, and I'll be more than happy to uh to revisit those and and answer those as well. I will also put a link to the Radio Jamaica interview below, so please do check that out, it's really good, and there's going to be something else coming up in the future, which I will keep you posted about all being well. So, with that, I'm going to wind it up there. Thanks again for stopping by, it's been greatly, greatly appreciated. Please do spread the word as I say, and let's continue to develop this. Um, I'll bid you all a good week ahead. Look after yourselves and one another, and there's going to be one or two bits coming up after this, which I think you um you might find quite interesting. Um and secondly, if you hear some banging in the background, it's because there's some work going on in the house and there are some building, uh some some building um building building. So for example, um I work in in in in the