Welcome to Leadership Focus HQ, an online hub dedicated to helping senior managers and corporate executives unlock the secrets to getting more accomplished while working less.
My name is Anil Agrawal, consultant, founder of the FOCUS LeadershipTM framework, and corporate coach that has spent nearly three decades in the fast-paced, “always on” tech space. For past several years, I’ve served multiple projects in critical leadership roles at high-tech companies like AT&T Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies, and Qualcomm to name a few.
I know firsthand how busy and “all-consuming” the life of a busy corporate leader can be. There never seems to be enough hours in the day, your to-do list is never empty, you’re not getting home as early as you’d like … and you still don’t feel you’re getting the recognition or career momentum you’ve been working so hard for.
Human Energy: The Most Critical Resource Businesses Have.
Despite the abundance of tools and technology at our disposal, I still believe that human energy is the most critical resource businesses have. While your company may not see things that way, you should — especially since you are your most valuable resource! This blog is dedicated to showing you how to leverage that potential and attain breakthrough results.
Top posts:
- 3 Obvious Signs of Burnout In Your Team Members
- 3 Easy Ways To Show Your Team You Believe In Them
- Why Difficulty Is All About Perspective
Occupational Hazard of Leadership: Workaholism
For most of my professional years, I was an unabashed workaholic. Like you, I was driven by more than just money — it was the thrill of the hunt, the fulfillment that comes from knowing you’re in your prime and tackling projects that engage your intellectual, creative, and leadership abilities.
One of my favorite projects over the years was working on Satellite communications and related technologies that enabled TV signals to transmit to mobile devices. The challenge: I’d never worked with these technologies before, and doing so would also stretch my leadership: I’d be interacting with people spread out over a number of different departments: management, R&D, software, hardware, and suppliers, some of them were overseas including France and Germany.
Like any driven corporate leader, I went all-in, working around the clock (my overseas associates/partners didn’t exactly work on U.S. time, so I did on their time as well) and pushing my team members to their wit’s end.
“No more emails after 10:00pm!”
One day, a mentor named Bob pulled me aside and said, “Anil, I can tell you are working too hard on this project. No more emails after 10:00pm, and no work on the weekends! You can’t fool me; I’ll see the timestamps. No more!”
I was shocked.
At first I resisted, but Bob’s words gave me a chance to re-assess, re-align, and re-focus. It was a lesson learned in managing not only my health, but also that of my teams. We were running at an unsustainable pace, and it was my responsibility to consider that. As the saying goes, “everything rises and falls on leadership.”
While I thought I was a strong leader of others, the realization was that I had to first be an excellent leader of myself
Be Your Best Self … And Attain Breakthrough Results In Less Time.
Since that experience, my leadership life has changed completely. That’s what this website and blog is about: helping you, the busy corporate leader — become a better leader of others by first becoming a better leader of yourself.