Denver used to host an extensive street fair, BuskerFest, every summer. This street carnival featured scores of performers: contortionists, magicians,
jugglers, fire-swallowers, memory experts, and more. It was a good place to learn about and witness true engagement.

In 2001, one performer captured my attention. He
sat atop a seven-foot unicycle. He balanced one end of a three-foot pole on his chin
and a spinning plate balanced on the pole’s other end. As he pedaled the unicycle and
balanced the spinning plate, he began to juggle three flaming torches. He never
missed a pedal. He kept that plate spinning atop the pole. He juggled the
torches with seeming ease. An amazing act. An engaging act. An amazing act of engagement.

When he finished, I complimented him for his masterful focus on every detail of his performance. He
grinned through his grease paint and said, “Well, there’s so much going on up there, that’s how I keep tuned in. I guess you’re right, it is focus."

Staying engaged in one’s individual work demands a high level of focus, but, I’d say that working on a successful team requires focus on functions and tasks, as well. Enhanced employee engagement is one result that
focus achieves. The more successfully team members share focus on issues,
the more successfully they will become engaged in the cause and purpose of their team.

Here are three specific benefits to a team’s sharing focus:

1. Shared focus on team identity generates a simple perspective of team purpose, objectives, and procedures. Shared identity creates harmony and unity within the team. That team works more smoothly and successfully.
2. Shared focus on objectives and direction enhances team awareness of “what we’re all
   about.” That focus streamlines actions and interactions.
3. Shared focus on actions and performance gives a team synergistic energy. Team members
   accomplish “greater than the sum” of their energies and abilities. That conserves and generates energy.

Here are 5 ways  managers can encourage team members to enhance their common, shared focus:

1. Sloganize. Create a team slogan or motto for shared focus.
   Use it as the attention-getter, memory-jogger, focus-maintainer on e-mail
   signatures, team meeting agendas, and in the byline for newsletter articles
   about team projects.  The team will more likely gravitate to a slogan members generate themselves.
2. Break the Ice. Start team meetings with icebreakers that target
   team focus. Simple start-up questions can be answered around the table: “How
   fast can we create an F.O.C.U.S. acronym?” “What one word best names our
   focus?” “Can we create an acronym with that word?”
3. Seek to Clarify. Build the team habit of talking about how clear
   the team’s focus is and how it can be made clearer. The more common these
   conversations, the more the team is attuned to an ever-sharper focus.
4. Focus on Focus. Make focus a part of every evaluation of team
   progress. (It is assumed that such evaluation is ongoing and not just at the
   completion of a/the team project.) These questions may be, “Did these results
   come from our (lack of) common focus?” “If we ensure that every member of the
   team is ‘on the same page,’ how can we improve our performance going forward?”
5. Question the Focus. Call the focus into question at regular
   intervals. Make it a point to ask if the team is looking in the right
   direction, if it is time to refocus, if there are factors that require change
   in the team’s focus.

Source Notes:

Photo of busker is by Lachezar

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Tags: Employee Engagement, Focus, Management, team