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Don’t let distractions knock your company off course

October 9, 2014 By    

A perfectly functional passenger jet crashed in the Florida Everglades in December of 1972.

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed because all three crew members had been concentrating on a single light that was out on the instrument panel. The light indicated whether or not the nose wheel was down and locked for landing. They did not realize as they worked on the problem they were slowly descending in the darkness.

The investigation later revealed that the nose wheel had been safely extended and locked. The official cause of the crash was “Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew’s attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.”

How often do we become distracted with minor problems when we should be allowing others to solve them on their own? When business owners are distracted, they are no longer focusing on the important, long-range issues that affect the whole company.

Have you ever overheard your office staff discussing a problem and you left your desk to get involved? When that happens to me, I close the door and play some classical music to help me stay focused on my task. Hey, it works for me.

Another business owner once told me, “You are the captain of the ship. Your decisions are what determine the direction of your company.” As the captain of your ship, don’t you agree that you need to stay focused on the direction you want your company to go?

Ken Albrecht is president of Reliable Propane in Clarence Center, N.Y.

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1 Comment on "Don’t let distractions knock your company off course"

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  1. Ryan Scaife says:
    November 3, 2014 at 2:20 pm

    I agree with this a lot. As the owner of Senergy Marketing Group (www.senergyco.net) where we work in propane advertising I am finding that a number of propane providers are getting too overwhelmed with minor problems. Those that stick to what they do best are the ones that find their company achieving more. Those that try to micro manage everyone around them struggle to keep their company moving forward.