Book Review: The Third Opinion - by Saj-Nicole A. Joni, Ph.D. - HABIT OF FOCUS

Introduction
LEADERSHIP HAS CHANGED
HABIT OF MIND
HABIT OF RELATIONSHIP
HABIT OF FOCUS
HOW INNER CIRCLE RELATIONSHIPS PROGRESS THROUGH THE STAGES OF LEADERSHIP
Remarks
Reading Suggestions & CONTENTS
About the Author

HABIT OF FOCUS

All leaders must master the Habit of Focus, which uses the Habit of Mind and the Habit of Relationship, to function effectively in their chaotic, high-pressure environment, while still making progress on the big-picture, long-term issues that need a leader’s attention. “Your sustained focus on the non-urgent important issues defines the core of your leadership. It is what ultimately differentiates your unique contributions and your ability to deliver value no one else can.” This means that leaders must devote what may be their most precious resource—their unscheduled time—to the important issues, the ones that hold the potential to yield the highest returns over time.

To begin developing a Habit of Focus, leaders “frame” their agendas. “Strategically framing issues—setting context, time frame, scope, and viewpoint—is work that is among the cornerstones of leadership.” Framing is inherently exponential. How leaders frame guides what they see. Beyond framing specific issues, leaders need to have a clear sense of what their overall leadership challenges look like.

Joni’s technique for accomplishing this is a graphical tool called The Star of Complexity Map, a technique that supports and guides the Habit of Focus. The Map enables leaders to take an integrated look at all the intersecting opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities they face—the entire leadership mandate—and looks at where leaders are supported or limited by expertise, exponential thinking, line of sight, and structural trust. “This allows you to see where you have strong and weak second opinions, and where getting the third opinion is most important,” according to Joni, who has used the Map with some of the world’s top executives. Using the Map, critical business issues, such as strategic positioning, revenue, profitability/cost structure, corporate investments/metrics, synergy with other business units, etc., are placed on a vector along a baseline of inherent business characteristics such as time frame, span, interdependence, stability, criticality, and rate of change, to get a comprehensive overview of the issues.

The Map can also be viewed through three “lenses.” “By sharpening the focus on different aspects of the star in aggregate, the lenses give a useful view of the issues in relation to resources and present knowledge.” A map can be generated by what is seen through each of the lenses: one for the leader (expertise, exponential thinking, time, and emotional energy), one for the internal team (expertise, exponential thinking, and structural trust), and one for the external network (expertise, exponential thinking, and structural trust). “The purpose of mapping structural trust is to reflect on the question of with whom, and on what topics, you are able to have full disclosure and confidential conversations, and where there are limitations and constraints.”