By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you filter distractions in your decision making.

Hank Aaron became baseball’s all-time home run hitter with the help of a well-developed ritual that narrowed and sharpened his attention span.

Hank Aaron on deck

Hank Aaron held the career home run record for 33 years until 2007

After swinging a bat in the on-deck circle, Aaron would take off his baseball cap. Then through one of the small holes (air vents) in his cap, he would stare at the pitcher. The small holes helped Aaron more carefully frame his view, focus his attention and filter distractions to better prepare to meet the pending challenge in the batter’s box.

I wish I had a magic hat like that to better focus my attention and filter out distractions as I prepared for a specific initiative. But I usually feel like I’m wearing a mesh hat with hundreds of holes like a sieve. No wonder information flows into and out of my attention span like a Flood of Facebook Likes or Tsuami of Tweets and Texts. Too much too fast.

Now before major decisions, I like to sit back and mentally squint at the problem, trying to narrow the focus. I know that the better I can filter out the distractions, the more effective I will be. Narrowing, my attention span and separating the wheat from the chaff is a critical leadership skill that I have to consistently work on. With enhanced precision comes enhanced performance, like the Hindu story of the Master Archer who is teaching a student to hit the target – a bird made out of a straw hung from a tree. Continue reading →