The speed and complexity of the modern world is not a natural environment for our brains. It can too easily lead to overwhelm and feeling like you’re a little lost at sea. Our brains are designed for singular focus and by pouring a constant stream of emails, social media, news onto our normal busy lives it is a recipe for confusion and a scattergun approach to our work. We simply lose focus.

There are three important methods for creating clarity in your life and career. Having this clarity in your mind is comforting. Is helps keep you composed and when key decisions or events come along your response is more effective and inspiring.

The three methods are:

The world is full of diagnostics that help people and teams analyse complex systems. The medical profession, personality models, culture surveys and manufacturing plant diagnostics help us rise above the detail and see how things are performing in relation to each other and a benchmark. It’s the higher level view this creates which is so important. It helps us understand, have clarity and know what to do next. In every coaching engagement I enter into we start with a diagnostic be it a High Performance Team survey, 360 feedback or Chief Maker Scorecard. All these provide immediate information to help with a better coaching outcome and rapidly reduces the time to understand a situation. It also gives everyone something to talk too, get on the same page and benchmark performance so you can see how the action you take improves the overall outcome.

The second key elements are the analytical frameworks or mental models you use to understand and respond to the world. When tricky or complex scenarios at work arise having these frameworks at  your disposal allows you to quickly and effectively respond using a proven pathway. They foster calm and ask people to consider all the angles of a given issue or initiative. This might be simple models like SWOT or a PESTLE analysis or more details approach like a full Project Management Lifecycle or Six Sigma Analysis.

The more of these you have stored away in your mental arsenal the better you are able to respond in the real world. Of course, as you rise up the corporate ladder the types of models you need to apply shift more towards strategy development, vision, values, culture change models, coaching models and financial analysis. The whole game shifts from the technical models that you used early in your career. So you need to re-educate yourself to thrive at the higher levels.

The final tool I use religiously are mindmaps and system diagrams. In the words of business guru Edwards Deming, “If you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process, you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Mindmaps, process maps and more detailed system diagrams allow you to accurately represent a complex system visually so you can stand back and look at the bottlenecks or pain points. Any personal mindmap, business plan-on-a-page or system diagram will immediately allow everyone to have greater clarity and to focus in on the most important pain points for them and the business as a whole.

When these three key methods are combined you’ll grow in comfort in your own ability and that you’re leading a team along the right path. Without these tools you’ll spend valuable time and energy guessing your next move and that can cost you confidence and bring imposter syndrome back to the table.

Stay epic

Greg