Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Effectiveness, Efficiency, Strengths, and Your To-Don't List


Effectiveness is all about what you choose to do. Should I participate in this or that? But it follows that choosing what you will do is inextricably linked to deciding what you won't do.

Author and Pastor Robert Schuller once said that he chose to be a failure at golf. It was very intentional for him. As he described it, a short game of golf or a long game of golf both took up about 4 hours of his time and it just wasn't worth the trade off.

I love Apple. My IPad sits to my left and my Iphone sits to my right as I punch out this writing on my MacBook Pro. Since Steve Jobs passing, I have been gathering up all the special books and magazines that have been released on his life, hoping to dig even deeper into his special genius. One thing that stands out about Steve Jobs and his effectiveness was that he claimed to be as proud of what products he didn't put out as those he did. He was clearly a person who understood what he was great at, understood what Apple was great at, and he didn't venture out much beyond that.

Steve Jobs was talented in very different ways than Bill Gates. Unlike Gates, Jobs new very little about writing code. Gates didn't have the feel for aesthetics and design while Jobs thrilled at it. Both became extraordinarily successful by sticking to their strengths and refusing to do things they weren't very good at.

Inside Steve's Brain is a book by Leander Kahney that came out well before Jobs death. He writes:

"At a personal level, Jobs focuses on his areas of expertise and delegates all else. At Apple, he is very hands on in areas he knows well: developing new products, overseeing marketing, and giving keynote speeches with product roll-outs." Kahney continues with a detailed list of what Jobs was good at, what he wasn't good at, and how he managed the areas of weakness. Weaknesses included directing movies, dealing with Wall Street, operations, and staying focused.

Bill Gates followed the same approach to his own effectiveness. Gates realized his best work was in product development and not overseeing day to day operations at Microsoft. He recruited Steve Balmer to do that. Like Jobs, Gates was very intentional about all this. He said, “maintaining focus is the key to success. You should understand your circle of competence, the thing that you’re good at, and spend your time and energy there.”
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