Quality Attention: Necessity or Nice to Have?

Would you say that learning how to cultivate employees' and leaders’ quality attention is necessary or nice to have? 

In any organization, employees are tasked with executing goals in a constantly changing business and economic landscape. Balancing time-sensitive deliverables with back-to-back meetings, constant digital communications, and limited resources poses challenges. External distractions, such as ruminating thoughts of inadequacy and self-doubt, result in anger and anxiety, leaving employees exhausted and overwhelmed. These external and internal distractions can leave employees and leaders feeling burnt out, disengaged, and disconnected.  This results in the loss of high-quality employees. 

Employee retention, engagement, and connection are crucial to an organization’s profitability and performance. Investing in managing employees’ attention can result in employee engagement, connection, and retention. 

Research from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests that replacement costs for an employee can be as high as 50%-60%, with overall costs ranging anywhere from 90%-200%. Example: If an employee makes $60,000 annually, it costs an average of $30,000 - $45,000 to replace that employee and roughly $54,000 - $120,000 in overall losses to the company.

Research by Matthew A. Killingsworth and Daniel T. Gilbert, published in the journal Science in 2010, used a smartphone app to collect data on people's ongoing experiences and found that minds tend to wander almost 50% of the time.

While mind-wandering is a common phenomenon, it can affect task performance. Studies have suggested that mind-wandering episodes can impair performance on tasks requiring sustained attention.

What is Quality Attention? It is defined as being fully present and engaged in the current moment, aware of your thoughts, feelings, and surroundings.  The quality piece refers to having an attitude of acceptance and curiosity in the moment.  Quality of attention contributes to improved focus and concentration, better decision-making, innovation, and emotional intelligence. 

Employees and leaders must learn to develop quality attention to execute a company’s strategic plan, employee retention, engagement, and connection.  These “human skills” are not taught in school.  They are crucial for a company’s success.

When an organization invests in an employee’s resource of attention, this can result in better prioritization of goals, enhanced performance, effective communication, and boost creativity and innovation.  This investment results in cost savings, which impacts a company's profitability and culture.

How can quality attention skills be taught to employees and leaders to cultivate lasting habits for behavior change?

At Simply Pause, I specialize in crafting and leading programs to guide individuals, leaders, and teams in navigating external and internal distractions. These programs foster employee engagement and connection, transforming their approach to daily work-related stress and overwhelm. The outcome is improved communication, heightened performance, and increased organizational profitability.

Minor tweaks in your day.  Learn how to take a simple pause before deciding on what action you will take in each moment. This simple pause provides the best action toward an organization’s strategic plan and mission. 

Group learning within teams fosters a sense of community.  Employees collaborate and realize the common humanity of stress and challenges they all face daily.  The team learns from one another, and there is a sense of accountability.

Meeting weekly for 5-6 weeks and practicing skills taught regularly, you tap into the brain's neuroplasticity to strengthen the attention muscle.  Habit change happens with consistent daily practice.

I have collaborated with numerous organizations that prioritized investing in the attention of both employees and leaders, leading to notable shifts in habits. This investment has left employees with heightened engagement and connection, ultimately fostering enhanced organizational performance.

Please get in touch with me for a free 30-minute consultation.