Paying attention to detail is an important skill that we need in order to live our lives with intention. As I have matured, I find this to be even more true. To operate businesses and organizations takes processing a lot of details in many areas to be successful.
We all want our individuality to shine with respect to our jobs. There is self confidence in our talents to either say we are good at paying attention to detail or we are not because we think focusing on the big picture is more important.
That the details don’t matter. That the details will slow you down. This misperception degrades severely our ability to be effective. Details will reveal to you deeper issues and problems that you didn’t see when you weren’t paying attention to them. You can’t master anything if you don’t understand & embrace details.
Details don’t provide direction. Details provide a foundation from which a direction can be crafted. Details give us much more perspective, to the point where they may lead you to more or different questions before you decide on a direction.
We need to have operational knowledge that has depth in order to influence, enhance or change any situation. Not having a deep level of detail will result in superficial and mediocre work. That most likely will need to be done again.
Absorbing detail is tough. It’s hard work. There are no shortcuts.
Only after we learn a lot about the details around and in our job can we then either dive into them or bypass them depending on the situation.