ONE OF THE UNIVERSAL KEYS to getting stuff done is to focus.  Avoid distractions, concentrate on one thing, and you’ll actually move ahead faster.

I get that.  Especially in our highly distracted culture, you can spend your entire day just flitting from one shiny object to the next.

But there’s more to the story.

Focus is good at the micro scale, but at another level it can get you into problems.

If you concentrate exclusively on the one problem employee, the others are going to notice that they’re not getting any of your attention.

If you only monitor your top line sales, it’s quite possible that your profitability will get eaten away by expenses that you’re not paying attention to.

If you spend every waking moment worrying about your business, you’re on the road to burnout because you haven’t created any time for relaxation and enjoying the fruits of your labor.

It’s about creating a sense of balance and perspective.  Not that you have to be working all those things simultaneously, but … in balance.

How do you figure out what the right balance is?  Well, that’s the kind of discussions I have with clients all the time.  And it’s the core purpose behind why I start every coaching engagement with an assessment of ALL the parts of the business, and we develop a coaching plan.

Then, within that, we can focus on specific issues.  But always within the context of seeing the big picture.