Many managers and leaders are not detail focused. That’s fine. However, if you are one of these leaders or plan to become one, then you’d better have somebody in your team that does care about attention to detail.
Spelling mistakes and grammatical errors are areas that people frequently raise as “nit picking” and “not important” to worry about. I disagree. Attention to detail can really matter.
As a manager or aspiring leader, you need to care about the details. Why?
Because it’s your reputation at stake. Do you want people to see you as a leader who doesn’t care about doing things properly?
1. Attention to Detail matters, Because if You Don’t Care, Why Should Other People?
If it doesn’t look like you’ve reviewed your work before it goes out into the world, what are you telling people?
- Your disorganised team rushes its work
- You think that people will look past the issues with the work and will instead spend time really understanding the core contents
- You believe people won’t notice
- Your team is unable to deliver a great piece of work.
Attention to detail matters because someone who takes more pride in their work will win every time.
2. Attention to Detail Matters Because One Error Can Ruin Your Credibility
Attention to detail is not all about spelling or grammar. It simply means getting the small things right.
I’ve seen business proposals submitted where the title and name of the person with the money to spend were both wrong. I’ve also seen consulting proposals where the final pricing had errors, resulting in an incorrect cost.
Many people may look past these issues, but the fact is, they just makes your work look sloppy. If your audience sees errors in obvious places, then they are likely to have less confidence in your work as a whole.
Paying Attention to Detail Doesn’t Mean Aiming for Perfection
Just because you pay attention to detail, it doesn’t mean you need to spend your time working IN the detail.
What I mean by this is that you don’t want to spend your time consumed with small, low-value tasks. Most of the time, you want to leave that to your team.
But, when there is work to review, you should take care to make sure that the important details are right. It’s a fine balance, and sometimes people fall into the trap of trying to achieve perfection!
You can read more about perfectionist leaders in this post: How Being a Perfectionist is Killing Your Leadership.
Attention to Detail is the Easy Part, So Get it Right
I saw a post on LinkedIn recently where somebody was complaining that people nitpick on minor errors in documents. Do you really want to waste time with a document that looks like it was prepared by somebody who doesn’t care?
Getting the detail right with calculations, spelling and grammar is the easy part.
The hard work is getting the solution right, doing your research, crafting the right story or selling a dream to your customer.
Attention to detail matters. People who see those small errors throughout your document may just throw your team’s hard work in the bin.
—
Do you think attention to detail is important? Or overrated? Leave a comment below!
Alternatively, if you'd like to know more or need some help on this topic, simply send me a private message through my contact page:
Yeah, thats nice.
[…] generic and overused. Tell them exactly what it is that you’re impressed by and why – that little bit of extra detail will go a long way, and while it may only be a few words for you, it will be taken a lot deeper for your employees, […]