Those of you who have played or followed sports, you know that one of the most important lessons in learning to play is to keep your eye on the ball. Whether baseball, or football, or tennis, or soccer, or any other game that requires a ball, you need to be alert to where that ball is at all times. If you allow yourself to become distracted and look away, you will lose your focus, disable your ability to play astutely, disengage from your team and its joint vision and strategy, and the other team may gain the upper hand.

Keeping your eye on the ball doesn’t just mean on the ball itself, but it means keeping your attention on the game, on your role as part of the team, and on your commitment to the team’s mission to play to the best of its ability.

This goes for nearly anything you do in …