Five Ways to Hold the Right Kind of Attention

To accomplish anything, chances are you need the help of others. Here's how to engage and motivate them

By John Hagel and John Seely Brown

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Posted on Harvard Business Review: April 5, 2011 8:26 AM

No matter how talented or accomplished you are, you cannot always count on attracting and retaining the attention of others. Too many options compete for everyone's attention, and they multiply with each passing day. It will be more and more challenging to rise above the noise and hold onto the attention of those who matter to you.

Attention provides leverage. The more people we can attract and motivate to join us on a challenging quest or initiative, the more impact we are likely to achieve. So, what are effective ways to attract and retain the kind of attention that helps us to address the challenges we face? Here are five steps that build on each other.

1. Embrace mystery - Frame really gnarly problems that are relevant to you and need to be solved. Help people to understand why these are such significant problems and why so many people have stumbled in trying to solve these problems. It probably will not attract the people looking for easy answers or silver bullets, but it can attract those who are naturally curious and looking for stimulating challenges.

2. Focus inquiry - Don't try to suggest answers. Frame interesting questions instead. Help people gain a foothold by posing questions that intrigue and motivate them to start investigating the mysteries that lie ahead.

3. Excite the imagination - Provide some "what if?" scenarios to illustrate the possibilities that await those who manage to come up with creative answers. Paint the pictures but make it clear these are only pictures. Stimulate people to pursue the questions with a lot of energy and creativity.

4. Limit availability - Lots of people will seek you out if you are successful in exciting the imagination. If you try to connect with everyone, the conversations can spread you way too thin. Be more selective in your availability - you will often provide even greater incentive to tackle the problems, rather than simply engaging in conversations.

5. Be authentic - If you try to game this, you will be found out and the backlash will be significant. So, here is the catch—if you are not genuinely engaged in addressing these problems yourself, you will not be able to sustain the attention and effort of others to come up with creative solutions. On the other hand, if you are on a quest yourself, leading by example, you could have a contagious effect and the encounters you have can help both sides to learn from each other.

Do these techniques actually work? Well, think of how Martin Luther King excited and mobilized a broad group of people to tackle some very challenging social problems. On a completely different level, one leading tech company in Silicon Valley regularly attracts the attention of the venture capital community by sharing its most difficult technology problems and suggesting that they would buy the start-ups that come up with creative solutions to these problems. Or look at the way professional astronomers have mobilized a global network of passionately engaged amateurs to learn more about the vast universe beyond this one planet.

This kind of attention is priceless and powerful. We will all need to find ways to generate it and harness it. This is not just an opportunity, but increasingly an imperative. We are all experiencing increasing economic pressure as individuals and institutions. In this kind of environment, we not only need leverage, we also need to more rapidly improve our performance. We all get better faster by working with others. To do this, we first need to attract the attention of others. If we fail to attract that attention, we will not get better faster in an increasingly competitive global economy, and we could be marginalized. That is why attention is becoming more valuable at the same time that it is becoming scarcer.

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/apr2011/ca2011045_582105.htm

Houston, We Have a New Office!

Rock Executives, Inc. is proud to announce the official opening of its newest office in Houston, Texas.  This new office, headed by Derek Fisher, opened its doors on December 5th, 2011.  The Houston office, located in the trendy Galleria part of the city, will continue to work alongside one of the nation's largest telecommunication companies to grow their client base in southeast Texas.  Also specializing in face-to-face sales and marketing, Derek's team is looking forward to putting their skills to the test in a brand new market. Regarded as the fourth largest city in the nation, Houston will provide ample opportunity for Derek and his talented team to meet and exceed their goals not only for their client(s), but for themselves and the Rock Executives organization.

In the few weeks since opening several members of Derek's team, some of whom relocated from our Rosemont, IL office,  were recognized in the top 10% of the country for customer acquistions and retention for our client.  Rock Executives is expecting great things from Derek and his team in Houston and is excited for what 2012 will bring. 

Rock Executives, Inc. Breast Cancer Awareness Bags Tournament Fundraiser

October is breast cancer awareness month, and the Rock Executives, Inc. team eagerly anticipates our October 30th Charity Bags Tournament Fundraiser benefiting "Susan G. Komen's Passionately Pink for The Cure Campaign."  The bean bag tournament is expected to raise around $1,200 for the Passionately Pink Campaign with all of the proceeds going directly to the cause.  Since the event is the day before Halloween, Rock Executives, Inc will also be hosting a pink-themed costume contest and raffling off various items and giving away prizes to the winners of the tournament and costume contest.  This event is open not only to all Rock Executives, Inc employees but also open to friends and family of the company

Rock Executives, Inc. and St Jude's Join Forces for Chicago Fire Fundraiser Event

This upcoming Sunday September 25th, Rock Executives, Inc. will be once again partnering up with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for a fundraising event with the Chicago Fire soccer team.  The Rock Executive's team will be responsible for selling 50/50 raffle tickets to spectators at Sunday's game both prior to and during the Chicago Fire's match against the New England Revolution.

In return for the volunteer work the Rock Executive's participants are invited to stay and watch the match after philanthropic duties are fulfilled. A great turnout is expected with almost 20 employees already confirming their attendance to Sunday's event. To find out how you can help donate to St. Jude's please visit: www.stjude.org/waystohelp.

Rock Executive's Rising Star: Derek Fisher

Derek Fisher joined the Rock Executives team in October 2010. He advanced very quickly to the position of assistant manager of the T-Mobile campaign and works side by side with manager Jimmy Brock in building and developing one of the most exciting and dynamic campaigns in the country. He is poised to manage his first campaign in the upcoming months in Houston, TX.

Derek grew up in rural Pennsylvania Dutch country and had a career in military service dashed by injury. He then relocated to New York City and entered into a career in financial services, being one of the youngest producing brokers at PaineWebber. His career culminated in ultimately being a Senior Vice President at Zacks, Investment Research where he was responsible for managing the institutional services department. In 2004, Derek relocated to Barcelona, Spain where he was a graduate professor and taught international finance and economics at several international MBA programs. Derek’s accomplishments range from being a National Merit Scholar, Foundations Forum recipient, member of several select side rugby teams at scrum half, and author. He counts in his many interests sailing, watching his beloved New Zealand All Blacks rugby team, consuming champagne, eating out, and winning every team night activity Rock Executives holds.

Keith Leluga: Rock Executives most recent addition to the management team!

Keith Leluga, born and raised in Chicago Heights, IL took a different career path from others in the industry, sales and marketing was not his forte.  While in college, Keith started taking business classes but that changed once he started working in the legal field.  He graduated from Purdue University with his Bachelors of Arts in Political Science in 2004 with his eye on the legal field. After college, he took a position working as paralegal and legal intern at one of Chicago’s largest law firms. This lasted for about 3 years until he took the next step and went to law school. Keith graduated from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in May of 2010 and began working as a student prosecutor.  While working as a student prosecutor he tried and won several jury and bench trials, while also balancing school at the same time. However, there came a time when the position he was in became stagnant and there wasn’t much room for growth.  This is when he found Rock Executives.

Starting in October of 2010 on the T-Mobile campaign, Keith quickly worked his way through the entry level and into the second phase of our company.  About 4 months into his employment Keith was offered an opportunity to move to the Spark Energy campaign. In February, after the transition, Keith began to build and grow in the business at a rapid pace. With guidance from the Rock Executives management team and mentors in the office, he took the knowledge they passed on and ran with it. Through hard work, dedication, and a mentality he was going to succeed despite any obstacles, Keith was promoted to Assistant Management on July 11, 2011.  As an Assistant Manager Keith helps oversee the Spark Energy Campaign, works closely with our client, has daily meetings with his team, runs meetings for the entire office, territory & market research, and other various management responsibilities.  When he came to Rock Executives, Keith was looking for a new opportunity and a place where he could grow fast.  What really caught his attention was the fact that this was a merit-based business and his hard work and determination were going to get him to the next level, and they did. Keith took the opportunity, ran with it and is excited for what the future holds for his career choice.

Rock Executives partners up with St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital for Great Urban Race Fundraiser!

Rock Executives, Inc. is proud to announce joining St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital this upcoming Saturday July 23rd, 2011 for its Great Urban Race  http://www.greaturbanrace.com/  fundraiser taking place in Chicago.  This exciting event which is also taking place in 41 other cities around the globe raises awareness about the importance of children's cancer research, and asks its participants to donate pledges for support.  This race is different from others due to its varied content from scavenger hunts to physical and mental challenges.  Participants work in teams of two and will be undertaking each of these challenges throughout the course of the day.

Rock Executives employees will be responsible for judging certain challenges as well as ensuring the safety of all of the particpants in the race by making sure each team is following the race guidelines.  Twenty of our employees have agreed to volunteer their time at the race, and others who did not register in time will definitely be there to support from the sidelines. The Rock Executives team is excited and honored to be a part of such a great cause, and looks forward to working with St. Jude's and other organizations for future philanthropic events.  For more information on the Chicago race or St; Jude's please visit: http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=fc7fef0dbe855210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD