What Focus Means to Executives—and What It Should Mean

​At a 1991 dinner party, according to Forbes, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet were asked the same question: What's the most important attribute that got you where you are today?

Both business legends had the same one-word answer: Focus.

Focus may get short shrift from executives who prefer a full plate and like to explore as many tasks and ideas as possible. Yet spreading yourself too thin and saying yes to myriad distractions is a major recipe for failure for executives.

"Whether you're a new CEO trying to navigate chaotic workdays or a veteran of the C-suite trying to reignite your passion, focus is your most important asset," wrote Trey Taylor, author of A CEO Only Does Three Things: Finding Your Focus in the C-Suite (A Board of Advisors, 2020). "Many owners and CEOs think they have to be involved in every aspect of their business. Consequently, they spend valuable brainpower on low-priority decisions. Before long, they're overworked and burned out."

How does an executive start choosing the right things to focus on? The list of "right things" is short but contains large items, management experts say.

"There are three key areas of focus that should be a priority," said Doug Meyer-Cuno, author of The Recipe for Empowered Leadership: 25 Ingredients for Creating Value & Empowering Others (ForbesBooks, 2021):

Strategy. Make sure employees understand and connect with the CEO's vision so they can execute the company's strategy. "A strategic process is much more effectively implemented if the employees have a line of sight and hold a clear understanding of the company's vision," Meyer-Cuno said.

Employee recognition. Acknowledge the hard work of your people. They make CEOs successful.

Financial sustainability. Create key performance metrics and see those metrics through to the end. "These metrics should measure profitability, revenue growth, cash flow, margins on core products and margins on innovative new products," Meyer-Cuno said.

The Path to 'Fresh Focusing' Skills

It's one thing to know where to focus; it's another to understand how to focus to get the best results. Thinking critically is an excellent jumping-off point.

"Critical thinking is a handy skill for discerning where to focus one's attention in a useful way," said Dennis Hancock, chief executive officer at Mountain Valley MD, a health and wellness products company in Toronto. "Critical-thinking skills usually develop from putting yourself in challenging positions to push your boundaries and learn to come up with creative solutions."

Hancock points to a pair of focus-driven scenarios, one when critical thinking isn't applied and another when it is.

Imagine a C-suite executive so intent on the optics of current financials that he's afraid to invest in future success. "That leads to outdated technology and business practices that will never achieve big growth," Hancock said.

Now consider Walt Disney, who made employees stakeholders in decision-making at a time when a traditional workplace hierarchy reigned supreme. He looked beyond his time's typical micromanaging practice to allow workers the agency to give life to his ideas. "Once he expressed the vision of his stories, he collaborated with several artists to develop their storyboards," Hancock noted.

Good time management is also a path to better focus. Executives who set time aside to hone their focusing skills wind up making better decisions and getting more out of their staffers.

"Corporate leaders should stick to a strategy of breaking up your day into three categories: focus hours, buffer hours and free hours," Meyer-Cuno said.

He breaks down each category this way:

Focus hours. This time is spent trying to accomplish tasks that yield big results for the business. "For example, there might be strategic decisions to launch a new product, terminate a specific production line, increase marketing dollars in a specific area, an acquisition or, perhaps, selling a division that is no longer part of your company's [core] strategy," Meyer-Cuno noted.

Buffer hours. These hours are designed for tasks that must get done during the day. "This time includes responding to e-mails, meeting with your teams, calling clients or customers," Meyer-Cuno explained.

Free hours. This is the time when an executive re-energizes. "This could mean making time to read a book, exercise or spend time with your family," Meyer-Cuno said. "Most CEOs don't take the time to establish free hours and tend to forget to have a balance of a quality life."

Returns on Investment

Once an executive develops a new habit of focus, it becomes a trait.

"Your team will recognize your focusing characteristics because you're constantly repeating the traits," Meyer-Cuno said. "Eventually this becomes part of your character. For example, when the CEO meets every Monday afternoon with the senior management team for a year, it becomes the DNA of the company, as well as of the senior team."

A big part of this fresh-focus mindset is letting go of the day-to-day issues that can consume corporate decision-makers. Instead, the real focus is on the big picture, with delegation used to handle the smaller tasks Too many executives feel compelled to jump in and offer help when it usually isn't necessary.

"This leads to micromanaging and happens when we lose sight of our good focus," Meyer-Cuno added. "Good focus occurs when we empower our teams and let them deal with daily issues while we continue to focus on our process and core responsibilities to move the needle."

Brian O'Connell is a freelance writer based in Bucks County, Pa. A former Wall Street trader, he is the author of the books CNBC Creating Wealth (John Wiley & Sons, 2001) and The Career Survival Guide (McGraw-Hill, 2004).