By: Michael Kanazawa

There are numbers everywhere today in business advice. And I don’t mean financial analysis. We have The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Leaders, the top 10 traits of Silicon Valley Dynamos, Know How: The top 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don’t, and, to top off this representative list, even a book of the Top 10 Business Books.

If I add up all of the business book top lists together that gives me about the top 12,875 essential tips for being a better leader and for business success! No problem, I can do them all if I could just find the time to master and learn all the advice from the book’s 500 Tips for Developing a Learning Organization.

There is definitely a better way to advance towards your full potential than getting buried by the massive number of top tips you see. Listen to the sage wisdom of Jack Palance in the clip from the movie City Slickers where he urges the main character to just find the “one thing.” One of my good friends mentioned the connection between my work and the advice Jack Palance shares in the clip. It’s about putting more effort on fewer things and having a clear purpose, rather than trying to master long lists of everything under the sun that might be a good idea.

Too often we try to improve leadership and capabilities by following long checklists of tips and reminders. But you just can’t do them all at once or even remember them all. Having those tips printed on laminated note cards, tee-shirts or posters on your wall won’t make them happen either.

Jack Palance was actually referring to the one enduring thing that is your meaning of life, but his wisdom applies to personal growth and improvement as well. Just pick one thing to work on at a time. Your odds of successfully making personal improvements go up dramatically by focusing. By the way, the same holds true for how you manage the performance of individuals on your team. When going into the annual performance review and goal setting cycle, set just one personal development goal with each person. Don’t create long lists that neither you nor the employee will even remember one month into the next year.

It’s great to read books (especially our upcoming book - ha!) on business success and leadership to advance your thinking, challenge yourself, and find new ways of doing things. But when it comes time to apply those ideas, just pick one at a time. I’m not sure when it became popular to create lists in business. It’s funny when David Letterman does it, but it is getting ridiculous in business advice circles.

Next time you read a book, attend a seminar, or are planning your goals for the following year for personal improvement, just pick one thing. Nobody can tell you what that one thing is. You need to determine that for yourself. Although if we searched, there is probably a book out there titled, “17 Top Tips to Finding Your One Thing.”

Stay focused!

For more information on this article contact the author:

Michael Kanazawa
mkanazawa@disseropartners.com

The use of this material is free provided copyright (Michael Kanazawa 2007-2009, Dissero Partners) is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the www.bigideastobigresults.com website. This material may not be sold, or published in any form. Disclaimer: Reliance on information, material, advice, or other linked or recommended resources, received from Michael Kanazawa, shall be at your sole risk, and Michael Kanazawa assumes no responsibility for any errors, omissions, or damages arising. Users of this website are encouraged to confirm information received with other sources, and to seek local qualified advice if embarking on any actions that could carry personal or organizational liabilities. Managing people and relationships are sensitive activities; the free material and advice available via this website do not provide all necessary safeguards and checks. Please retain this notice on all copies.

Bookmark to:

This entry was posted on Friday, August 31st, 2007 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Tips, Focus, Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.