Attention & Perception
Leaders love to talk about time management. The real issue isn’t time — it’s attention.
Time is fixed. Attention is alive. It’s the energy that animates what we notice, care about, and move toward.
Every system I walk into tells me what it worships by how attention flows. Follow the eyes, not the words. What gets airtime, what gets ignored — that’s the invisible architecture of culture.
Most leaders treat attention like Wi-Fi: assumed to be everywhere, equally available, and endlessly renewable. Wrong. Attention is scarce, shaped, and traded. It’s the most finite capital in any organization.
Patterns I See
Overstimulated systems: People are overwhelmed, yet starving for real focus. Busyness becomes a narcotic.
Hijacked attention: Metrics, meetings, and media hijack the narrative. What matters most gets buried under what screams loudest.
Fragmented perception: Leaders see pieces but not patterns. They mistake motion for traction.
What Leaders Miss
Attention doesn’t just reflect what’s important — it creates importance.
Whatever we consistently attend to becomes our shared reality. Neglect something long enough, and it disappears from view, even if it’s on fire.
Attention is also contagious. Teams watch what their leaders watch. If you obsess over numbers, they’ll obsess over compliance. If you pay attention to meaning, they’ll start noticing purpose.
Working With It
Steward attention like money. Spend it where it multiplies value — deep work, real conversations, trust building. Cut the noise tax.
Design attention environments. Shape spaces (physical and digital) that encourage focus and renewal, not constant pings.
Practice selective blindness. Learn to ignore what doesn’t serve the mission. Attention follows intention.
Create “vaults” of attention. Times and places where phones are off and minds are on. Presence is the new performance metric.
Questions Worth Asking
What’s capturing your attention that doesn’t deserve it?
What are your people watching you watch?
If attention is the currency of leadership, what’s your current exchange rate?
How do you create environments where focus and creativity can coexist?
Field Truth
You don’t change a system by yelling at it louder — you change it by shifting what it looks at.
