Attention is a precious commodity from leaders. As a rule, what they choose to give their attention to gets done. Tasks with no attention have a low success rate.
Time is the most precious commodity in any business. Time used well translates to efficiency, value, and ultimately profit. Poor uses of time results in waste. When a leader chooses to focus their attention on something, it means that they are choosing to invest their own time in it. Attention is the fuel that gets things done in business.
When leaders set priorities other than the things they give their attention to, it sends mixed messages. It’s not uncommon for some items to be “set it and forget it.” These items can often be the unsexy things that keep things moving.
In the real estate space, this could be the utilization rate of existing offices. If no one cares about a low utilization rate, why fight the business to try and push for higher density? Sometimes the law of “he who yells loudest wins” rules the day. If leadership isn’t giving any attention to the problem but the business is going to turn it into an issue, why fight it? But if leadership is keeping an eye on it, there is motivation to push for the right answer.
We all have limited time to invest in the things we do. It should be used where it creates the most value, even if we’d rather focus on just the fun things.