Leaders’ attention signals where subordinates should direct theirs.
Evidence
Leaders need to recognize that attention often flows downstream from their actions. Thus what the CEO pays attention to sends important messages to various constituencies about where they should be spending their attention. — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy, 20
Categorization
- SEED: The CEO’s attention as a management tool — a good angle for an essay on attention as leadership leverage vs. mere resource.
- CANDY: A clean, quotable insight: what the boss attends to is a signal to everyone else about where to spend their attention.
- XREF: connects to: Scaled-down abstract plans structure managerial attention from above — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 313; Attention must be managed at individual, managerial, and organizational levels to achieve goals — Thomas Davenport & John Beck, The Attention Economy: Understanding…, 15; Attention is alignment, the same faculty on individual and collective levels (+5 more)
Related
- Attention must be managed at individual, managerial, and organizational levels to achieve goals (similarity 0.88)
- Attention is more valuable when it diverges from others than when it aligns (similarity 0.82)
- Poor attention management causes managers to miss key competitive and environmental changes (similarity 0.80)
- Attention is socially and materially mediated, not just a scarce mental resource (similarity 0.79)
- Paying attention differs from spending time or being aware. (similarity 0.79)
- Scaled-down abstract plans structure managerial attention from above (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Attention is alignment, the same faculty on individual and collective levels
#expands(0.85) - Attention can be deliberately wielded, not just reclaimed
#qualifies(0.80) - Attentional alignment with others generates communal powers no individual could reach alone
#expands(0.80) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 111 - Attention is more valuable when it diverges from others than when it aligns
#complicates(0.75) — Yves Citton, The Ecology of Attention, 526 - Rising subordinate power shifts superiors into moderating conflicts between subordinates.
#expands(0.75)