Seven A’s of Accomplishment: Absorption

In an earlier post, I identified and briefly described the “Seven A’s of Accomplishment”:

In my last post, I described the Action factor.  In this post, I will expand upon the sixth Accomplishment factor: Absorption.   I will do so by answering the following questions:

•What is the Absorption factor?

•What are the key aspects of the Absorption factor?

What is the Absorption factor?

Absorption is akin to focus, concentration, and dedication.  One of my mentors at Westinghouse used to tell us, “focus on a few things and do them well.”  Highly successful individuals tend to be very good at this.  Absorption is the ability to discern the important and relevant information from the trivial. It is the ability to ignore distractions and irrelevant items.  Absorption is about paying the most attention to people and matters that are most aligned with your aim—the ones that will lead to its accomplishment.  This is why you must be very clear of what you want and of its implications.  Successful accomplishment requires high levels of absorption for long periods of time.  You need to choose what is more important and understand that other things will have to be put aside while you concentrate high levels of energy and attention on your aim.   Here again, you will test your Ambition.  In an earlier post, I wrote about the Attention Tug-of-War.  So many people and things are pulling us in different directions.  It makes it highly challenging to manage our attention and concentration.

In his classic book The Effective Executive, Peter Drucker wrote, “Effective executives do first things first and they do one thing at a time.”  He points out that “we first need to focus on doing well one thing at a time.”  Furthermore, he says “a busy person is an ineffective person.  It is concentration in which all faculties are focused on one achievement.  Few people can perform with excellence three major tasks simultaneously.  Concentration is necessary precisely because the executive faces so many tasks clamoring to be done.   This is the ‘secret’ of those people who ‘do so many things’ and apparently so many difficult things.  They do only one at a time.”

What are the key aspects of the Absorption factor?

The following are key aspects of Absorption:

• Prioritize the right things to work on.
• Focus on the few right things.
• Do one thing at a time.
• Manage the balance of urgent/important and important/not urgent matters.

You need to determine what matters most.  That is the first step.  Take time to determine the highest leverage things.  With that clarity you can more easily move to focus on the right few things to pay attention to and work on.  Apply the 80/20 rule (Pareto Principle) when possible to help you figure out the vital few. Then work on one of those things at a time so you can ensure the best execution.   Finally, carefully distinguish and manage the balance of urgent/important matters and the important/not urgent ones.  If all you are doing is working on urgent things, there may be a problem.  Urgent matters will always be present, however, if they rule your schedule, a problem may be lurking.  You must manage this balance carefully.

One final point.  Some of us tend to like doing a lot more than we need or should be doing.  Learn to let go of trivial things or those that others can do faster/better/cheaper.  Concentrate and leverage your and others’ strengths/preferences when possible.

Stay Focused!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO