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Strategic Thinking: Sneeze the Opportunity

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea to help you focus your performance and increase your productivity.

Ah, ah, ah, ah choo!!!! Gazunheit! No wonder people usually respond when you sneeze. Hard to ignore air exploding out of your mouth at nearly 500 miles per hour!

Next time you sneeze consider how much you focus on that one instant behavior. Ever try to do ANYTHING else when you have to sneeze? It’s all consuming. Inevitable in all ways. And always attention commanding. Nothing else matters when you sneeze, nothing except getting that sneeze out of you. Now. That all-consuming focus is a key leadership skill, a key decision-making skill especially when the strategic planning and thinking are complete and now execution is the key.

Seize the sneeze as your Model of Disciplined Decision-Making. Focus your thinking much like the air in your hollow windpipe collapses into a rubber-hose and squeezes your breathing to spurt out at 33 times faster than your normal breathing rate of 15 miles per hour.

With a stronger, faster, more narrowed focus comes a welcomed pressure than enhances performance.

Consider the life-saving focused behavior of a pilot in distress. With focus, comes an immediate response to a dangerous situation that avoids panic like this: Continue reading