Many of our clients, ranging from Fortune 500 CEOs to extremely affluent business owners, sometimes manage two or three telephones at once during meetings. The quiet success killer that lies at the heart of many poor boardroom decisions is attention deficit disorder.
It is a common directive for leaders to be creative, strategic, and visionary. However, a hidden factor known as shortening attention spans is eroding the ability of most CEOs, executives, and business owners to broaden their vision for the future. It is an illness that goes unnoticed and creeps into our daily lives, proliferating thanks to the very devices and social media sites that keep us linked. Even though it's subtle, the effect is significant.
This is why Steve Jobs was notorious for calling out anyone who did not pay attention, even for a second.
The brain at odds: Building careers with the same brain that checks social media
Consider this: the same brain that helps us create multimillion dollar businesses also drives our obsessive need to check our phones for the newest information. Never before has this paradox been more obvious. While we want our executives to make strategic decisions, have a long-term vision, and be focused, we also train them to always crave the next dopamine hit—a fast glance at social media, a quick text message, or a notice.
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is commonly referred to as the "feel-good" neurotransmitter. It is released when we experience pleasure, such as when we check our emails or receive notifications. Particularly in the setting of smartphones, where we are constantly one click away from the next reward, this short dose has an addictive quality. As noted by Jeff Bezos, phones have evolved into attention-getting gadgets. Furthermore, despite the fact that we might think that running our businesses from these devices keeps us productive and connected, in reality, they are undermining our capacity to see the wider picture.
Dopamine vs long-term success
Why does this hurt corporate leaders so much? Just like any muscle, the brain changes to accommodate new skills. We effectively wire it for fast gratification when we teach it to want transient dopamine boosts. And when getting satisfaction right away becomes the norm, it gets harder to focus, think critically, and consider long-term effects.
Think about this: a corporate executive who checks their phone nonstop is teaching their brain to focus in small bursts. While this might be appropriate for hurried judgments or tasks, it is detrimental for long-term strategic thinking. Developing a successful business requires the capacity to reason through difficult issues, consider all available options, and make judgment calls that will have long-term effects. These are not something that can be finished quickly. They demand perseverance, patience, and the ability to withstand the allure of instant dopamine hits.
The importance of managing attention in leadership
Top executives, including CEOs and company owners, need to consciously choose to manage their attention span just like they would any other resource. They need to commit time and efforts to extending and maintaining their attention span, just as they would to invest money or hire the best candidates. In a world when distractions are everywhere, this is now a need rather than a luxury.
Bezos wasn't the only one who noticed this. Several accomplished leaders have started to notice that the very instruments meant to strengthen our bonds are really severing our ties to the most crucial responsibilities at hand. The difference between leaders who can maintain their concentration and those who can't will only get bigger as attention spans get shorter. One of the most critical differentiators in corporate leadership going forward will be the capacity to sustain focus and withstand the allure of quick pleasure.
Practical steps to combat the attention crisis
What steps can corporate executives take to address this attention issue and reclaim their ability to concentrate?
Digital detox periods: Designate specified hours during the day to turn off all electronics. This is setting boundaries that let your brain recover from constant stimulation rather than giving up technology completely. Deeper thought and long-term attention can grow with even an hour of disconnection.
Deep work blocks: Allocate specific time slots for "deep work." This is the period when you should devote all of your attention to important duties. Make sure that during those two or four hours, there are no outside distractions of any kind—not even emails or notifications—just you and the work at hand.
Incorporating mindfulness and meditation into your daily routine can assist in teaching your brain to withstand the allure of distractions. Leaders such as Ray Dalio have long acknowledged the benefits of meditation in improving focus, making better decisions, and managing emotions. The mental muscle needed for sustained attention can be developed in as little as 10 to 20 minutes per day.
Disable notifications: Our brains are primarily trained to concentrate on the short term by notifications. Disable any pointless notifications on your gadgets. The person will find a way to get in touch with you if the matter is really urgent. You can recover your focus by cutting down on the amount of distractions.
Embrace boredom: It may seem strange, but creativity and sustained attention depend on being bored. How recently did you give yourself permission to be bored? When boredom creeps in, resist the urge to grab your phone and spend some time with it instead. Silent contemplation produced some of the greatest ideas in corporate history.
Consider the case of Sara Blakely. Sara, the American who founded Spanx, is a self-made billionaire. She was rated as the 93rd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes and included in Time magazine's annual "Time 100" list of the 100 most influential persons in the world. How did she get over there? She claims that one of the most effective strategies she had to propel her company into the stratosphere was "daydreaming."
- Use long-term goals to train the brain: Make long-term objectives and divide them into doable activities. This aids in retraining your brain to prioritize long-term goals above short-term satisfaction. You can interrupt the dopamine loop by reiterating the link between consistent effort and long-term benefit.
From dopamine addiction to long-term leadership
In the end, the leaders who ascend to the top will not be those who can react to every email in record time or look through the most newsfeeds in a day. The leaders who can pull back from the allure of quick satisfaction and instead concentrate on the things that really count will be the ones who really succeed. They are the ones who will realize that, in the end, thinking deeply is more important than reacting quickly. INQ
