Professional coaching increases attention control, the key skill in leading people.

Awareness and attention control

At the neurophysiological level, awareness is a process that takes almost 1 second (about 900ms). With training, an individual can become aware of more things in this first second than usual. Professional coaching increases the client’s awareness in a subtle way. This article aims at explaining the benefits of higher awareness and mindfulness for leaders, and how professional coaching does this. In addition, there is superior training to radically increase awareness of internal and external stimuli and attention control; these will be the subject of a future masterclass.

Professional coaching means accompanying the client to clearly define what he wants and to achieve this goal. His ability to intentionally focus on:

• the goal;
• what it takes to achieve the goal

it is crucial.

I have noticed that this is the ability that separates those who perform (who achieve their goals) from others: how well they can voluntarily control their attention is key.

Imagine that you are on a mountain ridge and on the right and left there are steep slopes, climbing to a peak where you desperately want to reach. What should / should you pay attention to? How much do you allow yourself to let your attention fly to anything but the next step? A professional coach will train you to control your attention for this type of climb.

The first second after a stimulus

About 80% to 90% of sensory processing develops automatically, completely out of our awareness, while regulating the functioning of our body. The other 10% -20% of this processing creates three types of awareness.

Primary processing, from 20 ms (milliseconds) to 100 ms after the onset of a sensory stimulus (auditory, kinesthetic, visual, olfactory, gustatory), generates basic awareness. At this early stage, there is information that “something” exists, but information about “what is there” is not yet processed. During this time, attention is automatically focused on (identifying the) stimuli. Some studies show that auditory stimulation is processed faster (20ms -> 50ms) than non-conscious visual stimuli (50ms -> 100ms after the onset of the stimulus).

Secondary processing, from 100 ms to 300 ms, creates pre-conscious awareness; more information is processed. However, even at this stage, there is no conscious awareness of the stimulus. During this period, the earliest emotional processing takes place, generating preconscious emotions, which can automatically influence our behavior, especially when there is a life-threatening situation. Semantic processing (i.e. word comprehension) also begins as a pre-conscious process at this stage, along with the spatial perception of the possible “location in space” of the stimulus (“in my body or outside me”). The processing of personal identity (identifying that “it’s about me”) begins at the earliest between 200ms and 300ms.

The third stage, from 300ms to 600ms and beyond, is when tertiary processing generates degrees of awareness by knowing the stimulus. At this stage, neural decisions are made by selecting an option from the multiple possibilities generated in the previous processing stage. At this stage it is decided to locate the stimulus in space; that is, the source of the stimulus, it’s 3D positioning, either inside or outside the body. The odor is processed between 200ms and 500ms after the onset of the stimulus, followed by more complex processing between 600ms and 900ms.

We can intervene in the automatic attentional configuration only in the third stage (300–600 ms). Cognition is involved in this stage; only here the choice/discrimination of stimuli and meta-attention (attention to attention) are also available, usually through attention training.

Attention control

Through your attention you respond to life (situations, circumstances, etc.). If you know how to control your attention, you know how to respond adaptively to life. The more you can focus on multiple stimuli at once, the more consciously you can find an optimal response. Otherwise, you will respond automatically, based on your default attention mechanism.

We have our own mechanisms/ patterns of attention, learned and solidified over time. There are cultural and generational statistical differences; Can you differentiate between the way Generation X has learned to control its attention from the way recent generations did the same thing? The recent generations “benefited” from so many external stimuli, notifications, and continuous media distractions, as opposed to the former generations.

How do we control our attention?

The division of attention is done in four directions (dimensions):

A. narrow vs. diffuse/ widened focusing;

B. immersive vs. detached focusing;

C. inner vs. outer stimulus

D. on a time axis

A. You can focus on one stimulus (narrow) or several at a time (diffuse/broad focus). Like when you look at one object on the table or all at once. Or when you focus on the sounds of a single instrument or the whole sounds of the whole orchestra.

B. You can be immersed / absorbed in the experience, being in contact with all the objects in your field of attention or you can have an objective way of paying attention, regarding things as from the outside, as an objective / detached observer. Like when you walk through a crowd of people walking and they draw your attention to this collective movement or when you look at the crowd of people walking from a balcony.

By combining the two primary types of attention focus, four ways are achieved:

a. You are in the middle of an orchestra (immersive attention) and you are attentive to the flute (narrow focus), even if you play the trumpet or you are the conductor, or

b. You are in the middle of an orchestra (attention immersed) and attentive to all the sounds made by all the instruments (wide focus), or

c. You are in the audience (objective attention) and attentive to the flute (narrow focus), or

d. You are in the audience (objective attention) and attentive to all the sounds emitted by all the instruments (wide focus).

In practice, all this flexibility of attention (narrow/wide, immersive/detached) can be included simultaneously in the attentional configuration. But let’s add the third dimension of attention.

Internal stimuli and external stimuli

So far, we’ve been talking about paying attention to external stimuli. However, some of the strongest stimuli are the internal ones: the “eyes of the mind”, the “inner voices”, the memories, the emotions associated with them, the screen projections in the future, etc. They occupy the same 1000ms band, in competition with external stimuli, making attention control an extremely complicated ability to train. Usually, when we talk about meaningful emotional experiences from the past, they tend to draw our attention and make us relive the past, forgetting the present. Through practice, we can learn to share our mind focus and notice both past and present information at the same time. The same goes for future screenings.

Time could be the 4th dimension of mindfulness: where does the mind go automatically and where would you like to go: more in the present, in the past, or in the future? What is the mind looking for in the past: sources of learning or regret? What does the mind look for in the future: hope or danger? What is the mind currently looking for: pleasure (hedonism) or fatality, inexorability?

The benefits of increased awareness and control of attention

With the recognition of what you feel as a result of stimuli, your inner experience is transformed, enriched, and your mind becomes calmer. It is as if in a previous intersection without traffic rules, today there are traffic lights. As your mind stops wandering unattended, it calms down. The key here is not to react, but to observe internal/external stimuli and how they generate the sequence of thoughts or actions. The result is that you increase your awareness of what really needs to be done, the reasons for action, and the effects of actions.

By raising awareness, which is neither internal nor external in particular, and through an increased form of discernment, you learn to recognize these pre-emotional responses. The more you train to notice where your attention automatically goes, the more this process de-automates and reaches your control, at deeper and deeper levels (towards the first hundreds of milliseconds out of 900).

A client I coach during this period automatically focuses on external stimuli, especially on the visual ones such as “what does not work”, “what does not fit”, “what is not in the right place”. Therefore, I don’t get any direct answers from questions that probe his internal stimuli, such as “What drives you [from within] to look for such inconsistencies?”.

Using his automatic system of attention as he was educated, we managed together through simulations and “what-if”s to bring to light old inner triggers (stimuli), ossified so well that at first, he did not recognize them: the need for his mother to see permanent order in the house, inculcated in him as a child through permanent behaviors (cleaned, vacuumed, dusted, etc.).

Other clients are in a different spectrum, of paralyzing emotionality. They cannot orient themselves and focus their attention on the outside because the emotions that are sometimes triggered by a single word and constantly updated block them in indecision. But going back on the wire, they realize at some point the whole 900ms route “trigger/ stimulus — emotion — story/judgment — action”. Then they can interrupt this process or discriminate against another course.

The first step in awareness is to strengthen the ability to constantly identify the focus of attention: to be able to automatically catch yourself thinking:

“What am I thinking?”

“What did I think before that thought?”

“How did I come to think of that, what was the stimulus?”

The (uncontrolled) automatism of attention disrupts our ability to concentrate. It makes us feel insecure. As you learn to intentionally turn your attention (the 5 senses) to “what is” (raw reality):

• without this happening automatically, below your level of consciousness, and
• without the need to judge and change “what is”,

you will notice how being a “discerning witness” reorganizes even the most troublesome situations.

Increasing the clarity of discrimination is essential for leaders. Clarity of discrimination/selection of stimuli and choice of appropriate answers in complicated situations means continuous adaptation, resilience, optimization, effective communication, achievement of goals on time, inner peace and wellbeing.

All current leadership topics (time management, stress, and burnout, team leadership, communication, delegation, imposter syndrome, collaboration, etc.) — all come down to this: how much control has leader X over his attention and where he chooses to place it.

How professional coaching raises awareness

1. The coach makes you talk about the things that concern you; hearing your thoughts in the presence of someone else, gives you a loop of sensory (auditory) feedback to a greater (self-awareness).
2. The verbal, para-verbal, and non-verbal reactions of the coach give you a loop of sensory (visual) feedback towards greater awareness.
3. Some questions from the coach increase awareness by reorienting your usual perspectives (narrow/wide and immersed/detached), for example:

• “If you tell the same thing in the third person, what changes?” (immersed -> objective)
• “If you tell the other person’s perspective, what changes?” (narrow -> wide)

4. Some questions from the coach direct your attention to the senses that you do not usually use.

5. Some questions from the coach direct your attention to that first second:

• “What was the first thing you felt when you saw/heard him …? How did you seek to hear him say what he said? How exactly did you make him say”
• “How do you feel right now telling me what happened yesterday? How did you react yesterday and how do you want to react now?”

6. Some questions/comments of the coach direct your attention to the present moment:

• “Why are you telling me this?”
• “Where’s your attention now?”
• “What voices are you listening to right now?”
• “You’ve been talking for 20 minutes, you didn’t ask me any questions. Where has your attention been all this time?”

7. Some questions of the coach are paradoxical and force you to overcome the attentional patterns/habits:

• “Teach me how not to pay attention to the other person! What do I have to do inside myself to pay attention only to myself?”
• “How can you get the most out of your attention?”
• “Pay attention to me! Pay attention to yourself, now!”
• “What do you ‘smell’ right now?”
• “Maximize the volume of the voice you’re listening to right now! What do you think it’s saying?”
• “The image in your mind you’re paying attention to now is full of color: put a black and white filter on it! How do you feel if you do that?”

8. Certain questions of the coach teach you to better discriminate between stimuli that deserve attention.

9. Some questions from the coach help you to realize the attentional patterns that lead you to the same kind of results:

• “How do you always do the same thing? How do you do that to me right now? Who does the same thing happen to you?”

10. In team coaching, questions and comments from the coach as the ones below can bring a team to its feet quickly:

• Where was your attention in the last 10 minutes and what was the effect of that? Which were the stimuli that pushed you forward in those minutes?
• Where did you intentionally placed your attention today?
• How can you keep each other focused on the purpose of the meeting?

Conclusions

Attention follows intention. Where is your attention right now? Where do you want it to be? Where does it need to be?

I have found that training the ability of controlling your attention and keep the focus for as long as you want is one of the key skills for a leader. Attention control optimizes:

• discipline and organization of time — which become energy resources;
• communication — which becomes efficient, to the point;
• self-confidence increases and leads to a decrease in the feeling of shame associated with the “imposter syndrome” — because you end up doing what you set out to do, and by doing so, you validate your usefulness;
• increase the empathy felt by others — because you can more easily control your attention to the present moment in conversations.

A final question

Attention is the only thing you can dare to control. Trying to control everything else is delusional. Even so, reality’s gravitation pull is heavy, and your untrained will barely scratch the surface. So, the question is:

• Where and what is the structure that will train your attention control automatically, without requiring too much will from yourself?

Keep your eyes on the prize and start with the end in mind! (popular attention control)

Bibliography

Nir Eyal — “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life”, BenBella Books, 2019

Nir Eyal — “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products”, Portfolio, 2014

Shirzad Chamine — “Positive Intelligence: Why Only 20% of Teams and Individuals Achieve Their True Potential And How You Can Achieve Yours”, Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2012

Daniel Goleman — “Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence”, Harper Paperbacks, 2015

Ovidiu Brăzdău — “Consciousness Sutras” (book to be published soon)

Philip Zimbardo — “The Time Paradox, The New Psychology Of Time That Will Change Your Life”, Atria Books, 2009

Tasha Eurich — “Insight: The Power of Self-Awareness in a Self-Deluded World”, Macmillan, 2017