Tim Kight, Founder, and CEOIn an interview with the Manage HR magazine, Tim Kight, founder, and CEO of Focus 3, sheds light on how effective leadership and people’s behavior are high stakes behind an organization’s ability to grow, change, execute, collaborate, and navigate within today’s market successfully.
How does Focus 3 help in alleviating challenges companies face in developing leaders?
Various challenges have been prevalent in leadership development, and the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified them tenfold. The most prominent theme challenging organizations is the need for better leaders at all levels. Many companies realized their lack of competitive leadership during the pandemic. Another challenge was responding and adapting to the continuously changing market. Change is difficult, especially for people who don’t feel comfortable conforming to it. However, it is interesting to note that change happens at the pace of the people and not the pace of the plan. Having a great change plan does not guarantee people will fully embrace and implement the plan. They may start to resist change on emotional or rational grounds.
Unfortunately, many companies do not have an effective strategy to help people respond to the personal side of change. When a company is implementing a change plan, it is essential to equip people with the skills to navigate the emotional element of change. Otherwise, the change initiative will struggle.
Two skillsets affect an individual’s performance: job skills and behavioral skills. Job skills are the specific technical skills required in fulfilling a responsibility. But behavioral skills reflect capabilities in key areas like self-awareness, thoughtfulness, decision-making, problem-solving, resilience, adaptability to change, listening and communication, collaboration, emotional management and intelligence, and mindfulness.
Trends show that most companies hire based on job skills but terminate due to lacking behavioral skills. No amount of technical competence can overcome the behavioral skill gap. Everyone has worked with at least one person who finds it hard to manage emotions, work in teams, control their ego, or tap into their emotional intelligence. Training people in behavioral skills has become more critical than ever and must be a priority in every organization.
What type of features and benefits does Focus 3 provide its clients?
Many years ago, we developed a program, The R Factor, which is considered one of the most crucial performance resources for a business. Every department, be it sales, services, or finance, requires disciplined responses to execute plans well. The R Factor teaches people how to manage their response to produce desired outcomes as they experience various events and circumstances from their responsibilities and the events they are experiencing. The program makes people more intentional, purposeful, and skilled, ultimately helping them respond better to challenging circumstances.
We also offer a leadership development program called Relentless Leadership which trains leaders on building trust and achieving results through people. Trust is built by improving character, competence, and connection, while results come from clarity, accountability, and support. Through the Relentless Leadership model, we offer leaders actionable strategies to immediately enhance their leadership impact and manage their business unit, department, or whole enterprise. We also provide the Leadership 360 program and Culture Blueprint that helps strengthen company culture.
Could you provide a case study to elaborate on how Focus 3 onboards its clients?
Focus 3 follows a unique 4-step onboarding process: discovery, design, decision, and delivery. During discovery, we sit with clients to discuss their business, strengths, weaknesses, and challenges. We focus on their goals, the problems they are trying to solve, and the risks they are trying to avoid. After discussing the expected leadership, culture, behavior, strategies, and execution, we move on to design. In this step, we pin down the suitable solution for the client, followed by the next step, decision. In this stage, they opt for a program, and we come to an agreement. Ultimately, we deliver the program to the targeted leadership team through teaching and coaching.
-
Focus 3 teaches people through clear, simple, and actionable tools and modules that they can implement in their professional and personal lives immediately
Focus 3 serves a variety of organizations across multiple domains. For example, we have worked with a large utility client who was finding it challenging to respond to changes and improve their safety culture.
The OSHA incidents and other metrics also indicated areas where they were struggling The client’s frontline leaders were not using their full potential to efficiently engage employees. We were able to apply our tools to equip key leaders and train employees on the R Factor. We coached over 5000 individuals with The R Factor program and significantly improved the leaders’ ability to navigate, manage, and adapt to change. Numerically, the client’s employee engagement improved by a huge margin.
What do you think makes Focus 3 competitive in the market?
Focus 3 teaches people through clear, simple, and actionable tools and modules that they can immediately implement in their professional and personal lives. We help people unpack complexities and manage things in a simpler and better way. We conduct engaging workshops driven by expert facilitators. We follow up these sessions with coaching to ensure they implement the best learning tools.
We also teach people about the 20 Square Feet metaphor, a philosophy that outlines that everyone in an organization has a sphere of ownership and control. It says that every employee controls their attitude and behavior but can only influence their surroundings. We help clients understand the power of 20 Square Feet to maximize self-discipline and self-management, making us unique in the leadership development arena.
