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Chicago Executive Coaching presents
This is Part 1 of a two-part Leadership Breakthroughs series on Finding Flow.
Leaders are expected to think clearly, solve difficult problems, communicate well, and make sound decisions—often while managing a steady stream of interruptions. Flow represents the opposite of fragmented attention. It is a state in which we become deeply engaged in work that challenges us, uses our abilities, and holds our attention long enough for our best thinking to emerge. In flow, we may become more creative, focused, and productive. Just as important, the work itself can feel more satisfying. We are not simply forcing ourselves through another task. We are fully involved in what we are doing.
For leaders, the benefits extend beyond personal performance. The quality of our attention influences the quality of our decisions, conversations, judgment, and impact on the people we lead. Finding flow more often offers the possibility of doing better work while finding greater fulfillment in doing it. But flow cannot simply be ordered up on demand.
So what can you do to make it more likely?
You likely know whether you’re a morning person, an after-lunch person, a night owl, or something in between. That’s a start. You can use that insight to plan demanding activities for the times when you have the most energy and focus.
John Hughes, in an October 2018 post on Flow State, suggests three practical ways to improve your odds of getting in the zone:
Define what you want to accomplish in the short term.
Set aside potential distractions.
Take care of your physical needs beforehand.
Useful steps. But there’s no guarantee you will find yourself in that distinctive state where optimum productivity meets high-quality work. To understand why, we first need to be clear about what flow really means.
The most common use of the word flow doesn’t capture the essence of being in a highly productive state. The two definitions for the common noun.
The definition of Flow State from positive psychology offers more clarity.
“The mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity.”
This is what we often mean when we say someone is “in the zone.”
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi named and developed the concept of flow in the 1970s. He described a state of complete absorption in which our attention becomes concentrated, self-consciousness recedes, and even our sense of time may change.
The flow state shares many characteristics with hyperfocus. However, hyperfocus is not always described in a positive light. Some examples include spending “too much” time playing video games or becoming pleasurably absorbed by one aspect of an assignment or task to the detriment of the overall assignment. In some cases, hyperfocus can “capture” a person, perhaps causing them to appear unfocused or to start several projects but complete few.
Flow is not simply working without interruption. It is becoming so fully engaged that action and awareness begin to merge.
I occasionally experience flow during a coaching session. I become so engaged in listening to the client, recognizing patterns, connecting ideas, and responding to what is happening in the moment that everything else seems to disappear. Then I make an observation that stops the client.
“That was profound. Can you repeat that?”
Sometimes I can’t. At least, I can’t repeat it with the same wording, timing, or impact. The thought was not something I had prepared. It seemed to emerge from the conversation itself.
Was I simply drawing upon experience? Was my subconscious making connections faster than I could consciously explain them? Or had I entered a flow state? Whatever the explanation, the experience reminds us that flow is not always something we schedule. It can emerge spontaneously during a conversation, a decision, a presentation, or an unexpected challenge.
Sometimes we prepare ourselves to find flow. Sometimes flow finds us.
In positive psychology, a flow state, also known colloquially as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by the complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting transformation in one’s sense of time.
Named by the psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi in 1975, the concept has been widely referred to across a variety of fields (and is particularly well recognized in occupational therapy), though the concept has been claimed to have existed for thousands of years under other names.
The flow state shares many characteristics with hyperfocus. However, hyperfocus is not always described in a positive light. Some examples include spending “too much” time playing video games or becoming pleasurably absorbed by one aspect of an assignment or task to the detriment of the overall assignment. In some cases, hyperfocus can “capture” a person, perhaps causing them to appear unfocused or to start several projects, but complete few.
Spontaneous flow is wonderful when it happens. But waiting for it to find us is not much of a strategy.
In his video, “Can’t Focus? Watch This Before You Sit Down to Work,” Daniel Pink offers seven practical steps for creating conditions that make flow more likely. His approach is particularly useful for work we can plan, protect, and complete on our own—writing, analyzing, designing, solving a problem, or preparing for an important conversation.
Can it really be pursued? Or, like happiness, is it something that needs to ensue? Watch, listen and decide.
Get Daniel Pink’s free Daily Flow Blueprint
Pink describes ritual and purpose as multipliers because they strengthen the conditions created by the seven steps.
Ritual helps us begin. A consistent time, place, or opening routine reduces the need to decide how to get started. It might mean closing unnecessary programs, silencing notifications, preparing materials in advance, or beginning with the same small action each time. The ritual is not flow. It is an invitation to focus.
Purpose helps us stay.
Pink recommends asking some version of:
Why does this matter?
That is a valuable question. But leaders may benefit from taking it further:
Who wins if I do this well?
What becomes possible?
Who benefits from my full engagement?
What may be lost if I avoid the work or do it poorly?
Sometimes we are motivated by the possibility of a positive outcome. At other times, recognizing the cost of inaction creates greater urgency. A leader may not look forward to a difficult performance conversation. The positive possibility is that the employee improves, expectations become clearer, and the team becomes stronger. The negative consequence is that continued avoidance may worsen the problem, frustrate stronger performers, and make the eventual conversation even more difficult. Occasionally, the inspiring vision of success is less motivating than recognizing the size of the approaching mess. Purpose can pull us toward something worthwhile. It can also push us away from consequences we would rather avoid. Either way, it gives our attention a reason to stay.
We all have tasks we enjoy and tasks we would rather avoid. The question is not simply, “What am I good at?” It is also, “What kinds of work naturally engage me?” In my case, I loathe bookkeeping and accounting tasks such as bank reconciliations. There have been times in my career when I was the only person qualified to do the job. I had the knowledge. What I lacked was any desire to jump in. I learned to choose times when I had fewer distractions and could lock in and attack the work. Even then, getting started usually felt like deciding to jump into a cold swimming pool. In hindsight, I might have benefited from following Daniel Pink’s seven steps. But would I ever have become a bank-reconciliation rock star? Not without developing some reason to care.
Perhaps the task itself does not always need to be fulfilling. The challenge, the outcome, or the consequences may provide enough motivation to engage us. Completing an unpleasant task may serve someone we lead, prevent a larger problem, or create room for work we value more. We do not need to love every task. But indifference makes flow a difficult place to reach.
So, when the work itself does not inspire you, what might give it meaning? Ask yourself:
We can pursue better conditions for flow. We can choose the right time, define the challenge, remove distractions, establish a ritual, and clarify why the work matters. But can we pursue flow itself?
The harder we try to monitor whether we have entered flow, the more attention we take away from the activity. We become observers of our own performance rather than fully absorbed participants in it. That brings to mind Viktor Frankl’s observation:
“Happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue.”
Perhaps flow works in much the same way. We prepare for it. We become involved in work that challenges us. We give the task our full attention. Then, if the conditions are right, flow may ensue. There is a certain irony in trying too hard to get into a state characterized by no longer thinking about how hard we are trying.
Maybe the better objective is not to pursue flow directly. Pursue meaningful engagement. Let flow be the possibility that follows.
Choose one meaningful or consequential task: something important enough to deserve your full attention and challenging enough to require it. Then create a better opportunity for flow:
Work during a time when your energy is strong.
Define what you want to accomplish.
Remove the most obvious distractions.
Clarify why the task matters.
Consider who wins if you do it well—and what may be lost if you continue to avoid it.
Stay with the work through the uncomfortable beginning.
Do not judge the experiment by whether you achieved flow. Instead, notice what happened. When did you become most engaged? What helped you stay with the task? What interrupted you? Was the challenge too easy, too difficult, or about right? The objective is not to prove that you can turn flow on. It is to become more aware of the conditions that allow your best work to emerge.
To be notified when Part 2 is published and when future posts are added…
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