Can I Have Your Attention? - by Curt Steinhorst (Hardcover)

About the Book

""A must read for anyone in the business of leading others." Ken May, CEO of Top Golf; former CEO of Fedex "If you want your team to stay focused, you will want to read Can I Have Your Attention?" Chester Elton, New York Times Best-Selling author of All In, The Carrot Principle and What Motivates Me Inspire better work habits. Focus your team. Get stuff done in the constantly connected workplace. As our workloads expand, attention has never been more valuable. Or more difficult to keep. In Can I Have your Attention?, Curt Steinhorst shows business leaders how to cut through the noise and get their employees back to work. Curt has spent years helping Fortune 500 companies overcome distraction and achieve focus. With technology creating endless opportunites to "improve productivity," people spend so much time responding to the interruptions that they've lost the ability to focus and do their jobs. Yet, the potential for harnessing the power of your team's attention has never been greater--if you can capture it. You'll learn how to: Implement a comprehensive organizational strategy to increase focus and overcome digital distraction. Take back control of the technology in your organization and life. Establish a Communication Compact, defining how, when, and why your team will communicate with each other. Create a "vault" to increase productivity, decrease stress, and boost your creativity. Free yourself and your employees from the never-ending flood of emails and messages. Achieve unmatched focus in the age of distraction. The smartphone isn't going away. Learn the simple rules and guidelines that will improve focus and create the mental space needed for your people to work to their full potential"--

Book Synopsis

"A must read for anyone in the business of leading others."
Ken May, CEO of Top Golf; former CEO of Fedex

"If you want your team to stay focused, you will want to read Can I Have Your Attention?"
Chester Elton, New York Times Best-Selling author of All In, The Carrot Principle and What Motivates Me

Inspire better work habits. Focus your team. Get stuff done in the constantly connected workplace.


As our workloads expand, attention has never been more valuable. Or more difficult to keep.

In Can I Have your Attention?, Curt Steinhorst shows business leaders how to cut through the noise and get their employees back to work. Curt has spent years helping Fortune 500 companies overcome distraction and achieve focus. With technology creating endless opportunites to "improve productivity", people spend so much time responding to the interruptions that they've lost the ability to focus and do their jobs. Yet, the potential for harnessing the power of your team's attention has never been greater--if you can capture it.

You'll learn how to:

• Implement a comprehensive organizational strategy to increase focus and overcome digital distraction.
• Take back control of the technology in your organization and life.
• Establish a Communication Compact, defining how, when, and why your team will communicate with each other.
• Create a "vault" to increase productivity, decrease stress, and boost your creativity.
• Free yourself and your employees from the never-ending flood of emails and messages.
• Achieve unmatched focus in the age of distraction.

The smartphone isn't going away. Learn the simple rules and guidelines that will improve focus and create the mental space needed for your people to work to their full potential.

From the Back Cover

The way we are working isn't working. We're distracted by technology. We're overwhelmed by open offices, siloed by cubicles, or marooned on our "remote" island. We're expected to be available 24/7, but never more in need of focus. We miss deadlines. We produce poor quality work. And they don't understand why. How can we get employees' attention off the myriad temptations and on what's important for their work?

Can I Have Your Attention? is written for anyone who knows that they, their employees, or their organizations can be more productive but aren't sure how to get there. In the book, Curt Steinhorst and Jonathan McKee help leaders rethink every aspect of work with an eye toward our most precious and dwindling resource: attention. They dissect the nature of distraction in our constantly connected workplace, reveal the hidden costs, and outline the strategies and systems needed to address the problem head on.

"Focus-wise" is the term used to describe the goal of turning our attention resources into productivity. Written for business leaders in any field, Can I Have Your Attention? discusses the possibilities and limitations of our brain's ability to focus. The authors explore our love-hate relationship with tech and reveal how it can actually help promote focus. They also include a thoughtful examination of the pros and cons of monitoring your workforce, unpack the shortcomings of digital communication and examines how face-to-face connection can make all the difference for engaging people. They also offer an alternative to the myth of work/life balance, explore issues of delineation and delegation, and offer practical tips for extending focus and capacity.

Can I Have Your Attention? is filled with research and experience based expertise and a practical approach to the unique demands of today's workforce. The book includes ideas for training that really work, suggestions for establishing emotional engagement, and a surprising cure for employee boredom.

Now you can reverse the distraction paradigm and make the workplace once again a place of productive work.

Review Quotes

"... balanced, reflective and very relevant when looking at the challenges that organisations and the people within them face in staying focused and attentive when all around is designed to distract them." (Global Payroll Association, March 2018)

About the Author

CURT STEINHORST is a speaker, business owner, entrepreneur, and founder of FocusWise. He equips professionals across the world to work smarter and stronger in this constantly-connected age. Steinhorst is a leading voice on strategic communications in the age of distraction and a certified speaker at the Center for Generational Kinetics. He is also the founder of a communications consultancy called Promentum Group.

JONATHAN McKEE is an expert on youth culture and Millennials, and the author of over twenty books.