You remember the LP? The cassette? The 8-track tape? The compact disc?

What if your entire business model was structured around a 10-year plan that included one of those now sidelined technologies? What if it was six years into that plan that the iPod emerged and your entire industry almost or completely disappeared?

The speed with which fashions, fads, and technologies come and go is dizzying. Which brings us to this week’s show.

Five and ten-year plans cannot be made—much less implemented—without paying attention to ideas and trends.

How many leading industries did not even exist ten years ago? How many have disappeared altogether in the same period?

How do you pay attention to ideas and trends? Your viability as a business may depend on it.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

People change. It’s the first rule of working with others.

People change from moment to moment depending on mood, attitude, and circumstance. People change over time as a part of growing up, maturing and developing.

Professionally, when people develop their skills and grow in their interests and capabilities their jobs, roles and responsibilities need to change as well.

If we assume that the people who work for us do not change and we are not paying attention, we risk losing these valuable assets.

Do people have a way to grow and mature in their roles where you work? Is anyone paying attention to how people are behaving, engaging and/or changing both in the short term and the longer term?

If not you could be in for more than a few rude surprises!

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

Problems crop up when we least expect them. Problems break through where we least expect them. Problems don’t time themselves well, don’t identify themselves forthrightly, and don’t come with solutions printed in the back of the book.

Not only are problems difficult to anticipate, if they are not spotted early on, they can spread like a cancer.

In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss attentiveness to problems.

Paying attention becomes a crucial skill when it comes to spotting problems early on. Earlier than later. Early, while there is still time to take decisive and corrective action before extensive damage is done.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

Imagine being in the vinyl records business and being caught off-guard by the advent of compact disks. Or being in the compact disk business and being caught off-guard by the mp3 player.

If you weren’t paying attention, you’d simply be out of business now. In the first case, literally out of business because the vinyl record business has all but disappeared.

In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss the crucial importance of paying attention to change.

You’ve heard the saying, “Change is the new constant.” When change is always happening, only the alert can adjust in a timely manner.

Keep doing your 5- and 10-year planning, but by all means don’t ignore what going on around you in the mean time! Your may succeed in building a video rental store in every neighborhood right when someone else succeeded in connecting television sets directly to the internet.

Listen in.

Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

Paying attention is a skill first introduced to us in kindergarten. A room full of energetic and curious 5-year olds without any capacity for self-control or responsibility needs to be taught how to pay attention.

“Pay attention!” The teacher is about to say something. Some words are about to come flying at you, and you will be better off if you are prepared and able to catch them. Those words may be instructions. They may be stories. They may be questions. They may be explanations.

You won’t be able to recognize what is coming at you unless you are paying attention. And if you don’t recognize what is coming at you, you won’t be able to respond appropriately.

We need to be able to pay attention at work more than we think we do. In a fast-paced world like ours, paying attention is a skill that needs to be recovered. Much comes flying at us all the time. If we want to respond appropriately, then we need to be paying attention.

This week Claudia and I begin a new audio series entitled, “Paying Attention to Attentiveness.”

Paying Attention to Attentiveness
Week #1: The Neglected Leadership Skill
Week #2: Attentive to Changes
Week #3: Attentive to Problems
Week #4: Attentive to People
Week #5: Attentive to Ideas and Trends

As vital as our proactive leadership practices like strategic thinking, goal setting, and planning are, we need to be alert to what is coming at us as well. We need to be able to react calmly, promptly, and cleverly.

Like the tennis player who needs to aggressively carry out their own game plan, they must also be able to react instantly and repeatedly to whatever is coming at them.

How well do you react to the unexpected, continuous change, emergencies, or economic turmoil?

Listen in.