Can I Have Your Attention?

Chapter 23Competing with Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg makes being a leader difficult. He created a platform where everyone looks amazing all the time. And he created a company where no one seemingly has to work. Everyone sits in beanbag chairs, wears pajamas to work, takes as many vacation days as needed, and plays ping pong all day long. It's tough competing with Zuckerberg. But you must.

Heavy lifting used to be just that. Our economy once relied much more on physical labor than it does today.

Today, your heavy lifting is about competing for the time and attention of your people when there is always something better, newer, and shinier out there. One example is the chronic issue of employee engagement and how it's our job as leaders to inspire people. If we don't, they'll drag down the organization or simply leave.

Digital Disconnect

One reason that engagement lags is the shift from physical to mental labor. Typical work today requires significantly more mental focus; most people can't just zone out and do their job. And where focus is required, distraction always threatens to upend it.

But there's an even larger component that leaders, if they're focus-wise, spend their energy cultivating. Few things drive performance like emotional engagement.

As organizations and the economy become increasingly complex, employees are often denied the emotional benefit of seeing their labor bear fruit. People crave the excitement of experiencing a customer using their product or seeing a community ...