Are You Paying the Hidden Price of Workplace Distraction?

“The true scarce commodity will be human attention.”
—Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft

Feeling distracted lately? You’re not alone. Most of the people you work with — including those co-workers and customers who need to hear your message — are distracted as well.

Consider the sobering stats below.

  • 8 seconds: the average attention span today, down 50% from the year 20001
  • 70 percent: the percentage of American employees who are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged from their work”2
  • 47 percent: the amount of time people now spend thinking about something other than what they are currently doing1

This is a huge, hidden, and costly problem.

Why? Because your company’s success is a function of its best ideas being turned into profitable products, projects, and customer relationships.

Yet it’s increasingly difficult for your key people — executives, sales professionals, project managers, team leaders, and engineers — to break through the distraction and capture attention for those ideas.


Here’s the bottom line: in today’s “high-distraction” environment, having a great business idea isn’t enough.
You must also present it in a way that GRABS and KEEPS audience attention. It boils down to whether you can accomplish three things quickly:

  1. Make your ideas understood.
  2. Connect those ideas to the valued “care-abouts of the other party.
  3. Build confidence that you are a trustworthy source of information and recommendations.

In short, it’s about becoming a more credible and compelling messenger of important, innovative ideas.

Want to learn more? Download: Credible Messaging: The Missing Driver of Business Performance.

 

SOURCES: 

1. Wandering Mind Not A Happy Mind

2. State Of The American Workplace

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David Mears

Formerly Chief Sales Officer at Mandel, David was responsible for the organization’s sales growth, as well as for key strategic global accounts. He is an expert in sales strategy development and execution and regularly consults with Fortune 500 companies about their sales strategy design and execution plans. Prior to his work with Mandel, David was an executive team member at BayGroup International, where he was involved in both internal and client-facing strategic project work. David has also held senior roles with Learning International.
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