It has almost certainly happened to each of us - you’re driving down the road on cruise control. You’re not doing anything reckless, but your mind is on a million things besides the stretch of road you’re on. You’re thinking about your destination, how long it will take to get there, whether you have enough gas, what’s for lunch, and why no one seems to know how to use a turn signal any more.

The next thing you know, you’re literally shaken back into focus by the rumble strip just on the other side of the white line. You’ve drifted a bit, so you make a slight course correction to straighten things out, and continue on your way with more focused direction.

No big deal, right? Right. But things could have gotten really dicey if it weren’t for that rumble strip.

Great leadership involves the relentless pursuit of clarity. No assumptions. Just clarity around what needs attention as an organization evolves.

The 2013 article "Why You Should Work From a Coffee Shop Even When You Have an Office" inspired this post which explains the importance of taking the time to focus on your business. 

Entrepreneurs and leaders of companies of all sizes oftentimes get lost in working in their business. The to-do list they came into the office with in this morning grew, not shrunk, by the time they left the office. The urgent drives out the important. What do you do about it?

If you read my previous blog post, you know that I was obsessed with my Grandmother Bessie’s shoe closet growing up. And the obsession with shoes has followed me through life. To this day I love shoe shopping, but it’s not about just ANY shoe – it’s about the RIGHT shoe.

Some leaders and managers have been tempted to deviate from the 5-minute rock review we teach in the weekly Level 10 Meeting™, desiring something more detailed than a simple, on track/off track, report. The concern that team members are inappropriately reporting rocks to be on track when they are not has lead some teams to create elaborate “rock crushing systems” that include breaking rocks down into smaller action steps, plotting those steps out across a timeline, tracking completion of those steps and reporting the progress in weekly meetings.