6 Horizons Of Focus: How To Think Strategically About What You Should Be Doing

Every week I share advice and stories from people who have figured out how to make things happen. 

It's a weekly reminder it can be done.

This isn’t about hacks, tricks or cutting corners.

It’s about rigorous fundamentals to help you add more value, now and forever, in work and life.

The hard part is figuring out what’s right for you and your situation.

Every day I talk to busy leaders who ask seemingly simple questions.

I'm thinking of changing our talent pool training, is this a good idea? 

I'm going to open my presentation with this slide, is it ok?

I want my sales reps be more proactive, will this approach work?

Should we change our landing page to attract more people?

Legit questions, I admit.

I can’t answer that off the top of my head.

Why?

Because everything works but not everything will work for you.

This sounds simple, but this single concept encompasses why leadership is both an art and a science. 

There’s no such thing as an objectively good or bad tactic.

Your ability to stand out, lead and beat the competition is not based on tools and tactics alone.

Your advantage is in HOW you use them and WHEN you use them.

But before that, you need to adopt a strategic mindset and sort out your priorities.

In walks David Allen of GTD and his '6 Horizons of focus.' 

I have a huge respect for David and his work. 

Try his framework, it puts your mind at rest and helps you step back, reflect and organize your ideas.

Once you're done, you are in a better position to make a judgment call about what to do next.

The idea is pretty simple and straightforward.

Still, it’s much like martial arts, learning the guitar, tango or Chinese calligraphy. 

Initial moves feel very awkward, very unnatural and unnecessary until you do them 1000 times and you recognize there’s no better and efficient way to move.

Managing the flow of work can be approached from different altitudes as there are 6 different levels of defining what your “work” really is.

Let’s start on the top.

The top horizon, HORIZON 5, would be: What’s your commitment as a human being or as a company?

In other words: What’s your purpose? Why do you exist? Why are you here as a company? As a leader?

This is the ultimate big picture discussion.

Start with why. (Sorry, Simon Sinek, for borrowing that phrase from you, mate.)

Anyway, the top level is PURPOSE.

At the same level would be your VALUES.

What is really, I mean really important to you?

Sort of, you don't care where you work and where you are as long as X.

You don’t care who you work with as long as X.

What’s your X?

Your core values alongside your purpose are going to be your prime drivers and set your priorities.

For you and your people.

I know, I know. 

I keep saying this.

But I keep saying it because so many people forget. 

Of course, knowing your purpose isn't going to help you decide which Zoom invitation to accept.

Maybe a little bit. 

You need to step down operationally to get to another horizon.

The next horizon down would be HORIZON 4.

It's your VISION.

It’s a long-term picture.

What’s the vision of your purpose being fulfilled successfully? 

If you fulfilled your purpose successfully what would that look and feel like?

Where do you want to be in two, three or five years as a person, leader or team?

Now, knowing the vision that you have in terms of life, career and lifestyle, is that going to help you decide which Zoom meeting is most important? 

Yeah, a little bit.

Now, you probably need to go one level down.

In order to get this great and bold vision come true, what are the things you need to accomplish over the next three to twelve months?

What are your GOALS AND OBJECTIVES?

What are the short term things you need to accomplish?

Getting clarity about these things is your HORIZON 3.

By the way, have you noticed?

You still don’t have anything to do yet.

All you do here is defining and refining the ideas you’ve got on your mind that you’d like to have come true. 

One level down gets you to HORIZON 2, the area of FOCUS AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

Essentially, that’s why you have your job description.

What are all the things that you need to maintain so you have balance and stability to be able to get the goals, vision and mission accomplished?

These are not things to finish, you just keep them at some appropriate level.

You just need to make sure that they’re up to par, in terms of getting you where you want to go.

Now, deciding what’s the most important Zoom meeting you need to attend tomorrow is getting easier, isn't it?

Well, stepping one level down you get more operational and ask: Well, what are all the things I need to finish about any of those things above?

Welcome to the project level, HORIZON 1.

You’ve got PROJECTS, things you want to achieve, things that require more than one action.

These are the things you need to finish, personally and professionally, in order to maintain what you need to maintain in order to move the needle toward the goals, vision and mission that you have.

And by the way, you still haven’t done anything yet. 

You don’t get to do anything until you get to the GROUND LEVEL.

At the ground level, you ask what are all the actions, physical and visible activities that you need to take on any project. 

And that’s where most people have over a hundred NEXT ACTIONS.

Now you actually have real stuff to do.

So when you ask, “How do I set my priorities?” think which one of those horizons is not clear enough to you. 

Or which one do you need to refer back to and decide what’s most important on your list?

When you are busy, at what horizon do you want to have conversation about your next zoom meeting?

PS. Like what you’re reading here? Well, you have three choices really.

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