RESULTS.com - Business Execution Blog

Hiring - how to filter out the tire kickers

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:30:00 GMT

Companies who are highly effective at business execution follow a disciplined hiring methodology. This ensures you only hire “A-Players" for every role in your company, as described in our previous article “No more hiring mistakes". Hiring is too important to get wrong.

By now you should have created 1 page “Role Scorecards” for each key role in your company, and used them as the basis to construct your job postings. Describing jobs in this way filters out many unsuitable applicants right from the start; which is a good thing. You only want strong candidates applying.

The next step is to put another filter in place to refine your applicant list still further. I personally never look at someone’s resume anymore. Rather than have people send you their resume (a generic document that may be sent to hundreds of other employers), instead you send them a “Career History Form” to fill out that asks them exactly what you want to know.

This way you get the exact same information from every candidate so you can compare them side by side. This also filters out the tire kickers, because only high caliber “A-Player" candidates, who are genuinely serious about applying for your role will complete this step.

Career History Form.

In broad terms, the Career History Form should ask applicants to provide you with the following information:

For each of their previous roles, details of:

Date started and date finished (to identify any gaps between jobs)?
Starting and ending salary?
Duties they were accountable for?
Results they achieved (quantified with numbers)?
Challenges they overcame?
Failures or mistakes they experienced?
What they would do differently if they had to do it all again?
What they liked most and least about the role?
The name of their immediate supervisor?
What their supervisor would say their strengths were?
What their supervisor would say their weaknesses were?
Permission to contact their supervisor and will they assist us in arranging this?

Plus, if you are recruiting for a management role, you also want to know for each of their previous managerial roles:

A description of the performance of the team they inherited?
What changes they made (as a manager) to improve the team’s performance?
What style of manager their employees would say they were?
Permission to contact their past employees and will they assist us in arranging this?

Imagine how much easier it will be for you as a hiring manager, when you receive this quality of information from your job applicants, and you can compare them side by side? Now you have a far better basis to decide who is likely to be good “fit” for your role, and with whom you will spend your valuable time interviewing.

As you can see, this is a very comprehensive process, one that is designed to draw out the real truth - and we haven't even gotten to the interview stage yet!

The quality of your business execution depends greatly on the quality of people you hire. You take hiring shortcuts at your peril. Discipline yourself to do it right the first time, and save yourself the time, money, and heartache that comes along with making bad hiring decisions.

Hiring is too important to get wrong!

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Michal Zacharzewski

Communication mistakes to avoid (and fixes to make)

Bernie May — Sat, 11 May 2013 21:15:00 GMT

Many managers I've met think they're better at communicating than they really are. Communication is hard. It doesn't just happen. It has to be deliberately designed. Here's a couple of suggestions mistakes to avoid, and how to be a better communicator (and therefore a more effective leader):

The Mistake: They Know What I Know

Other people cannot read your mind. They do not know what you know. They have not experienced what you have experienced. They were not at the retreat, training, or planning session with you.

The Fix: Overcommunicate

Say you’ve decided to roll out a new performance review process. Please don’t (and I’ve seen this done) tell your managers: “Do performance reviews. Follow this process (hands over slide deck), use these forms (hands over forms), and have it done by this date.” It will fail.

Instead, try staging the roll-out of your change initiative by 1) telling them what you're going to tell them, 2) tell them, and 3) tell them what you've told them.

That new employee performance review process? Your first email might be just for managers who will be performing the reviews; announcing the initiative, explaining the process, and inviting them to a training session. Tell them what you’re going to tell them…

Consider repeating this first step for different audiences. Your first communication to non-managers might be an “all-hands” e-mail announcing the initiative, explaining the process, and inviting people to an in-person information session (maybe a lunch-and-learn) where they can ask questions.

Now your managers are ready for the questions (because they've been trained) that will come from their direct reports.

After the review process is complete, you might consider having a “hot wash”, inviting feedback, and compare how the process was supposed to be carried out, and against what actually happened. Share this analysis. Tell them what you told them. Close the loop.

The Mistake: This Is What I Want Them To Know

Change freaks people out. Please think about who is affected and how. Try to think about it from your audience's perspective and not just from your own. You will know what you're trying to do means to the company or to you personally. But what does it mean to the people on whom the change is being imposed?

The Fix: Tell Them What It Means to Them

Every message needs a purpose. Every communication needs an intent. What’s the one thing that your audience wants to know? Not just what do you want them to know, but what do *they* want to know? Ask yourself, if you were this audience, what questions would you ask?

The Mistake: I'm Going to Provide an Overwhelming Rational Argument

"Just the facts" is great if you’re investigating a murder. Insufficient if you’re inspiring action or driving change. It is a mistake to believe that a rational, logical, or well-constructed argument will persuade people to change what they think is in their own perceived best interests. You are going to need more than just the facts.

The Fix: Appeal to Their Hearts Too

Martin Luther King said "I have a dream." He didn’t say “I have a plan.” Stories, vision, passion, vulnerability. These are the things that persuade people to change. Concrete, tangible, visual goals are what drive action.

Yes, your plan has to be based in reality. Businesses have to make money, but the purpose of a business cannot and should not be just to make money. Your body needs to make red blood cells in order to live, but making red blood cells is not your life’s purpose. A doctor gets paid well, but doctors don’t exist to make money.

Businesses need a higher purpose too. Maybe you’re not going to solve world hunger, but you should have a vision beyond just X percentage growth, or Y dollars revenue. Have the guts to stand for something. Something that inspires people to leap out of bed in the morning and eagerly embrace their work.

The Mistake: One Email Should Do It

I love email. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. It also provides us a record of what was said. Sometimes it’s important to have a record. Also I don’t have to ask people how their day’s going, or remember their kids’ names. But maybe that’s just me.

But words are only a small part of what’s being communicated. So for trivial or strictly objective communication (“Where are we having lunch?”, “Please send me the numbers for the third quarter.”) email works just fine. After that, the chance of miss-communication goes up exponentially. If you're relying strictly on email to communicate, you're losing out on the majority of your ability to influence. Email is efficient, but it’s ineffective.

The Fix: Talk to a Human

Mark Hortsman has an amusing saying (I paraphrase): “I’m glad to hear you want to work with people. All the jobs with trees and dogs are taken.” As managers and leaders, we manage and lead people, not email. If our jobs were to manage email I wouldn’t have to write this blog post.

Phone calls are better than emails for engaging human beings. Video-conferences are better than phone calls. In-person meetings are better than video-conferences. One-on-one, face-to-face meetings are better still.

If you need a record of what you agreed, write it down afterwards or capture it in your business execution software.

The Mistake: Everybody Sees the World the Same Way I Do

I love words and books, but not everybody has a childhood association with the written word like I do. Not everybody processes the world through words. There are five senses, not just eyes scanning shapes laid out linearly.

Words are a visual media, yes, but there are also photographs, drawings, movies, models, and sculptures. There are many visual media, but that's just one of the five senses and one of many different ways to understand the world.

The Fix: Tell Stories

Persuasive, moving arguments invoke all five senses and more. They also invoke memory and emotion. We act because of how we feel, not because of what we think.

Last week I saw a dinner presentation was on project workforce management. The slides that accompanied the presentation looked like a random collection of numbers and letters thrown at the page. The presenter read directly from the slides. It was horrible. An audience member rescued the presentation with a simple metaphor:

There are two kinds of shoppers at the hardware store on a Saturday morning. The first kind has a list, knows what they need to complete the entire project, and gets in and out just the once. They spend the rest of the day executing the project, finishes early, and has a beer on the patio at the end of the day.

The second kind makes a trip to the hardware store every time they figure out they’re missing another piece or tool. With workforce management, project managers are trying to be the first kind of hardware store shopper. There. One simple visual metaphor and the jargon-filled, esoteric project management concept is distilled and clearly communicated.

Over simplification? Maybe. Understandable? Very much so.

The Mistake: I'm Busy, They'll Figure It Out

We can’t manage time. We can’t manage five minutes and turn it into six. But we can decide what to focus on, how to manage ourselves, and how we spend our time. As managers we get things done through other people. Managing people take a lot of time and effort. Much more effort than managing ourselves, which can be a pain. If people did what they were supposed to, being a leader would be a lot easier.

There’s no point in being so busy that you don’t check in on a project, program, or initiative, only to find out in the last two weeks of a three month effort that you’re two months away from finishing it. Now you’re going to be spending the next two weeks fighting that fire.

Fix #6 Have a Rhythm

Getting things done doesn't mean doing everything yourself. Getting things done means planning and delegating the work, keeping track of progress on a regular basis, and reporting on that progress. Clear responsibilities, radical transparency, and regular reviews drive accountability.

Consider maintaining a ”relationship” with the projects you’re accountable for, as well as the people you work with. Regular, habitual check-ins, meetings, or status updates are the best means of keeping a project on track.

Establish a cadence of business execution that lets you stay up-to-speed on what’s happening with all the work and your team, ideally once a week. Once a day, if that’s appropriate for critical, complex, or large projects. Make sure everyone is clear on what tangible, deliverable results they need to deliver by the end of each week.

Now you can verify progress, and make small corrections to get things back on track, instead of having to jerk the wheel to avoid the ditch at the last minute. All that does is scare everybody.

The Mistake: Lack of Focus

I’ve got a lot of renovation projects started around my house. We installed hardware floors eight years ago, and still haven’t put the baseboards in. The outside of the house is half painted, the garage needs new gutters, and I have the bricks but not the sand to re-lay the back patio so that it slopes away from the house instead of towards it. I started that job when I took the old wooden patio out. I don’t remember how many years ago that was.

There’s lots of things we could be doing, and yet nothing seems to get done. We’ve gone from doing a little here (let’s get an estimate on finishing the tiling on the back landing) to doing a little there (oops, the playhouse needs repair! Let’s turn it into a garden shed while we’re at it - the kids are all grown up and don’t need it anymore.)

It’s demoralizing really. Lots of activity, with no sense of progress. Companies and teams can suffer from the same organizational schizophrenia. When everything is important, then nothing is important, and nobody is clear about what to do next.

The Fix: Find the Big Picture

There’s a saying about how the cobbler’s children go barefoot because he’s too busy making shoes for everybody else. So I took my own advice. I stepped back to figure out what I was trying to accomplish overall. Then I picked one thing to do to get me closer to that.

Sooner or later we’re going to need to sell the house we’re in. The kids will all be moved out soon. The house is too big for just the two of us. We're going to need to get our investment plus maybe a little extra out of it to find our little retirement cabin in the woods. We are never going to get there if we kept doing the same thing we are now, which is trying to come up with the perfect plan and budget.

So we picked one project that we know we can get done. We’re installing the baseboards, re-painting the walls, and moving around some furniture and pictures. This will free up some space so we can do other things. We've spent the last two weekends working, and the progress is tangible. At the end of today the pronouncement was “Let’s keep going!

The Biggest Mistake: Assume Your Message Is Getting Through

I have the privilege of working with both the executive and the management teams with one of my clients. Even between these two fairly aligned teams, intentions, communications, and messages get mixed up and lost. It's actually sometimes entertaining, or it would be if you're a disinterested third party. If you're in the middle of it gets a little frustrating. Now imagine what it's like for the foremen and workers at the front line?

The Biggest Fix: Close the Loop

Check your message is getting through. Talk to front-line staff. Walk the trenches. Practice the art of generous listening. Then adjust or repeat your message as necessary. Never assume that what you're saying is what people are hearing.

Bernie May

Business Execution Specialist

Photo credit: Charlie Balch

No more hiring mistakes

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:27:00 GMT

Looking back over my management career, the worst experiences were without a doubt, having to deal with poorly performing or badly behaving staff members. I remember the stress, anguish, not to mention the loss of sleep thinking about the tough conversations I needed to have.

I learned many painful lessons, and one of the most important was the realization that you can make things a lot easier on yourself, and achieve far better results if you hire the right person in the first place.

RESULTS.com defines an "A-Player" as a person who consistently exceeds the performance standards required for their role every month; and who simultaneously demonstrates all your company core values – they are a role model for your culture. Both requirements must be met.

That’s where the Topgrading methodology has made a huge difference for me. Studies have shown that the way most people conduct their recruiting, the hiring manager will only successfully hire an “A” Player 25% of the time. By successful, I mean one year from now, the person you hired is still employed with you and consistently performing at an A-Player standard.

The Topgrading researchers claim that if you follow their disciplined hiring methodology; you can increase your hiring success rate to 90%. So if you want less stress, more sleep, and better business execution, taking the time to follow their process and "do it right the first time" makes a lot of sense to me.

Like most success factors, it requires real discipline to learn, implement, and follow such a disciplined hiring methodology. You take hiring shortcuts at your peril. Hiring is too important to get wrong!

The process starts with creating 1 page “scorecard” for each role. The scorecard is the checklist against which everything must be ticked before you make a hiring decision.

In broad terms, here is what your scorecards should contain for each role:

Key Duties and Outcomes.

Specify exactly how the person will be spending their time so the applicant is very clear on what the role entails and can see very quickly whether it would be a good fit for them. List the most important ACTIONS the person in the role is expected to perform (ranked in priority order) and what % of their time they will need to dedicate to this activity. Include specific OUTCOMES for each duty where possible.

For example, if you expect a salesperson to spend 20% of their time making phone calls to inbound leads, and to book a minimum of 10 sales appointments every week, make this expectation very explicit.

Key Performance Indicators.

Ideally, every role should have a KPI. What 1 or 2 numbers will the applicant be held strictly accountable for attaining the required performance standard every month? They must know how their performance will be scored, and be willing to be held accountable to achieve these specified results.

Core Values.

List your Core Values. For any role in your company, the applicant must be able to show that they are aligned with, and have demonstrated these types of behaviors in previous roles. Otherwise they are the wrong fit for your culture – period.

Behavioral Competencies.

What specific competencies “must” the applicant have demonstrated in previous jobs, in order to be highly likely to deliver an A-Player level of performance for you in this role? Be very specific about the behaviors you are looking for. When you specify these, it is possible to construct an interview questioning process that performs “due diligence” on each of these areas.

Previous Experience, qualifications, skills.

Most companies only recruit for these factors – but they are really just table stakes.

Use the 1 page role scorecard as the basis from which you construct your job posting for each role. When jobs are posted with this level of specificity it will deter many unsuitable applicants from applying right from the start - which is a good thing. You only want strong candidates applying.

The 1 page role scorecard is just the starting point for making great hiring decisions (we will explore the other steps in future articles).

Have you built scorecards for each of the key roles in your company?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

The NEW leadership. Are you up for it?

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 01 May 2013 10:30:00 GMT

While there’s much about leadership that remains constant over time, there are profound strategic changes occurring in many industries, and the pace of change is only increasing. Leaders need to display certain attributes to deal with these changes. This growth tip was inspired by an article that featured in the Management Excellence blog.

Some leadership attributes are timeless. Every leadership book emphasizes that great leaders possess the following “table stakes” attributes - regardless of the historical era:

A positive outlook
Able to motivate and inspire their people
High degree of credibility – they know their stuff
Show confidence in the face of adversity and ambiguity
Earn the respect of their people
Care about the development of their people
Able to have the tough conversations where necessary
Authentic – they walk their talk
Willing to stand up for what is right
Take command and make the big decisions

Business Execution in the modern era requires some new leadership skills that need to be added to this list:

Agility.

Whilst it is inspirational and motivational to have lofty long-term goals and a grand vision for the future, the environment is changing rapidly. The new leader must be agile and nimble. Your strategy should still focus on the long term; looking out 3-5 years, and choosing the key strategic moves to position yourself for future success in your industry. However, you must accept the fact that "things change" and review and update your strategic assumptions regularly. In the near term, you should focus on no more than 3 current strategic projects that will move you in the desired direction. Many projects will take the form of short-term experiments – and not all of them will succeed. Accept this fact.

Strategic plans should be updated every quarter. Think of each quarter as a series of sprints. Plan, execute, review your progress (what went well, what didn’t?), review your 3-5 year strategy (does it still make sense in light of the changing environment?). Make adjustments if necessary. Then plan your next sprint.

General Eisenhower once said, “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” Nothing goes exactly as it was written down in the plan. However, the leaders who have the discipline to plan, execute, review, and plan again every quarter – will learn faster, and be better prepared to cope with the changing environment.

Focus.

A lot of activity without it being focused on a clear strategic direction is just “busyness.” People might be working hard, but their effort is pointless unless it is moving you in the direction of your chosen strategic priorities. Unlike the historic leader who prescribed what actions to take, the new leader develops teams who can identify the right actions to move the strategy forward. You still have the deciding vote, but your leadership role is to keep people focused and moving in the right direction; and holding them accountable for results, rather than prescribing what to do, or how to do it.

Project Management.

Leaders now need to be great project managers. In an increasingly globalized and digitized world, the traditional borders of time, geography and culture have become blurred. The new leader must learn how to bring together and manage temporary teams. Assemble the best people to drive each project, wherever in the world they may reside. Some team members may not even report to you directly in the normal course of their business, but they are accountable to the project team for results.

Some project teams will choose their own leaders, namely, “Who is the best possible person to drive the execution of this project?” Become comfortable with the concept that you may be a leader in some teams, and a follower in others.

The new leadership. Are you up for it?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Erdogan Ergun

How to build and repair customer relationships

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:17:00 GMT

Ideally, we proactively contact our customers to assess their level of satisfaction (or better yet their level of advocacy) with our products and services and take action to resolve any issues that are raised. Seeking customer feedback needs to be a regular discipline, as the dynamics of the relationship can change over time.

Despite our best efforts, sometimes the customer does not receive the experience they expect from us – and they now have a growing number of channels to provide us with feedback.

A frustrated customer might vent their feelings to you in person – or via the phone. This suits some customers – particularly those who can easily express their feelings verbally and enjoy the confrontation that can sometimes accompany verbal dialogue.

However, those who are shyer of disposition are less likely to confront you in this manner. Hopefully they will email you – but they might just as easily mutter under their breath – and resolve to take their business elsewhere in the future and tell anyone who cares to listen about their dissatisfaction with your firm. Unfortunately your company can miss the chance to put things right in this scenario.

Increasingly these days, customers express their feelings about brands via online channels: Facebook and Twitter are the most common, but also specialist sites that invite their users to rate brands and then write their own reviews about their experience (e.g Amazon, Yelp, Angie's List).

Your staff also express themselves online. We have seen many instances where an ill-considered email, blog, or tweet by a staff member has led to real brand damage – understandably when your staff can be perceived by customers to represent the voice of the company.

Some form of social media policy is appropriate to clarify expectations for your people (e.g. talking about new products before they are launched might be a "no go zone", as might be voicing political opinions etc), but you can’t create a policy to cover every client facing communications scenario. What can you do?

Define your Core Values clearly, both to your staff and to your customers.

Everyone should know what you stand for and what you will not stand for. When anyone in your team is in doubt about what to say, what to write, or what decision to make – all they need to do is ask, “What do our Core Values suggest is the right thing to do here?”

No – not those mealy mouthed, generic words you see written on plaques in company foyers (honesty, integrity, customer service, teamwork, etc). Rather, you need to clarify the “real” meaningful behaviors that make your company unique - the guidelines that drive the decisions of ALL your people every day.

If your staff know these Core Values, are aligned with them (you have recruited people who are the right cultural fit), and they know they will be held accountable to uphold these Core Values as part of an ongoing performance appraisal process – then they can be empowered to take the right actions in all their customer facing communications.

Take a look at the plaque in your foyer. Do your Core Values pass this test?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Do you have the discipline to be disciplined?

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:30:00 GMT

If you are a regular reader of these business growth tips, you will know that we strongly recommend that business leaders follow a disciplined strategic decision making process, and a disciplined business execution process – that is, if you really want to maximize your chances of business success.

However, when researchers look closely at business failures and mistakes, we start to recognize patterns. Failures happen for 2 main reasons:

Ignorance - we don't know enough.
Ineptitude - we failed to follow a proven process.

1. Ignorance.

In order to reduce failures due to ignorance - we must never stop learning. Most successful business leaders I have met are what I call “ambitious learners”. They are always reading, attending courses, asking questions. They are open-minded, and willing to change their opinions if better information comes to light.

2. Ineptitude.

However, according to The Checklist Manifesto, most failures and mistakes occur for the second reason - ineptitude. Not following proven processes. The author states that the humblest of quality control devices, "the checklist" - is the key to taming a fast-changing, high-tech world.

The use of proven checklists, protocols, and processes to ensure the right things are done in the right order is nothing new. Would you fly on an airplane if you knew the pilot decided to fly the plane using their experience, memory, and gut instinct - rather than follow a detailed checklist of everything necessary to conduct a safe and successful flight?

Protocols and checklists have been proven to save lives in hospitals, but despite showing this evidence to doctors and nurses, many still resist using them. Yet, when these same medical professionals are asked - would you want a checklist to be used if you personally were having the operation - invariably they say yes.

In our high stress, high speed lives – it is all too easy for a doctor to miss a step in a surgical procedure – just as it is for a CEO to fail to ask a key question before making a strategic decision that will profoundly impact the future of the firm - or a hiring manager to skip a step and take a short cut in a hiring process that is designed to thoroughly vet candidates and ensure they only employ people who destined to be A-Players in the role.

The problem is that it can feel beneath us to use a checklist, an embarrassment. We have been conditioned by the media to think that great leaders are heroes with some kind of super intuition - able to handle situations of high stakes and complexity using their instincts. Wrong!

The hero mentality.

Do these themes resonate? Over confidence; I trust my gut; I know what I am doing; Process is beneath me; I don’t need a checklist; I feel restricted when I follow a process; My work is too complicated to be reduced to a process.

We need to get away from the notion that a checklist is an affront to our intelligence and ability. If following checklists and process is good enough for surgeons, pilots, and rocket scientists, then why should business leaders think they are any different?

Realize that having the discipline to follow a proven process will not only increase your likelihood of success - but also enable you to delegate with confidence to others when they are required to carry out the same key activities.

Discipline can set you free – but only if you have the discipline to be disciplined!

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Adam Ciesielski

Leadership lessons from John Spence

Kendall Langston — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 10:30:00 GMT

One of the best things about working at RESULTS is that we get the opportunity to meet and hang out with many of the thought leaders on the planet. It is a chance to understand their thinking, discuss ideas, hear how they apply ideas and concepts and to just get to know them.

This year we bought John Spence down to meet our New Zealand clients again. A follow on from his first successful visit in 2012, John was back by popular request. He was engaging, generous with his time in preparation, and a lot of fun. As part of the feedback from 2012 it was suggested by many attendees that they wanted to hear New Zealand stories as well and as a result we asked four clever CEO's to get on stage and answer questions from both John & the audience on leadership, challenges and business in general.

John also did smaller presentations for clients in Auckland and Wellington and he facilitated a day of training with me for our New Zealand Consulting team. It was a lot of fun, a real learning experience, and a highlight of the business year for us all.

I always like to take a bit of time a reflect on what I have learnt and how I can apply it with clients or into our business and these four days for me generated so many new ideas. Here are nine things I learnt from John Spence:

1. The power of humility.

I have always believed the most genuine people are humble and remain so. John reinforced how powerful this is. It doesn't matter who you work with or for, where you went to school or what award you have won or been recognized for. Remaining a genuine, approachable person with an open attitude to learning and listening to others is very engaging. Leadership and business is all about people, relationships and remaining approachable.

2. Givers Get.

John goes above and beyond for his clients and gives away a wealth of ideas, tools and connects people around the world. He is very accessible and will always answer e-mails and requests personally. This creates that high trust and adds real value. When you get John, you get his experience, his network and everything he has read, researched and learnt. This applies in business and was a good reminder for our company as we work with our clients. Going the extra mile is a game changer.

3. Being Blunt is a Good Thing.

During our team day with John, something came up to which I gave a very direct response. John’s comment was, "Look this man is insanely blunt and you are going to have to get comfortable with this". Naturally, this invoked a lot of laughter. I have always known this of course, but to have it validated and to have John explain that it is a good quality that most people value and desire from a boss gave me time to reflect. Of course there are times to be less so but being open and transparent is certainly something I value and try to emulate. It was a good learning.

4. Never stop learning.

Every situation, person, company and client situation teaches you something. By having a passion for learning you can really soak it in and take one or two things away from every situation. This learning has certainly encouraged me to be a little more disciplined in my approach to banking the learnings and more conscious of using them.

5. Live in the moment and have fun.

It is very obvious that John Spence loves what he does. Many times he reflected on how lucky he was to be in New Zealand, being paid to do what he loves the most, which is to work with good people & companies and to make a real difference to them through his teaching and facilitation. That is a very good place to be in life. Doing what you love the most as your daily work. Business leaders need to take time out to pursue their wider interests. John booked a week of fly fishing in the South Island which is one of his passions in life.

6. Always have stories.

Managing by telling stories gets taken to a new level by John. He can always pull out a very good story or two to illustrate a point or to get a teaching point across. People love stories; it is part of our genetic wiring from many thousands of years of evolution. People remember them, laugh at them and relate to them. Having some good stories ready to be pulled out is a really powerful tool for anyone leading people.

7. You become who you hang out with.

If you surround yourself with good people then you will succeed. If these people are smart, you like and trust them, and if you help each other out regularly, then this is a recipe for making a lot of good things happen. The people you hang around with greatly shape your daily reality, your attitudes and what you do in the future.

8. Don't be scared of failure.

You have to try things as a leader and this means you have to be brave. When you are in the game of leading in a fast changing business environment, decisions are a part of daily life and there is no way you can get them all right. Be open and transparent with your team, ask them often for input, make the best decisions you can with the best information at the time and make stuff happen. If it is not right then change it, learn fast, own your mistakes and tell stories about them. People who make a few mistakes are generally those who make good leaders.

9. Strategy is simple.

If you can summarize the company strategy in one sentence then you might just have hit the nail on the head. Strategy is not complex or hard, it should be a simple idea that can be applied to all you try and do. I really love this concept because part of my role as a CEO is to have a simple one that is easy to articulate. Likewise when I am working with client CEO's I am trying constantly to push for simplicity. It is a great learning and I realized that my own strategy is quite simple. "Build a team that is hard to get into and easy to get off". If I can do this they will be in the top 5% of their profession, they will be clever, highly engaged and look after our clients and get results. John helped me clarify this.

Of course there were many other ideas and tools I have stashed away to develop and use but these nine things were the biggest reflections and learnings. I think the skill of reflection is a very powerful one for any leader. If you can reflect on what you have seen, heard or done you can not only learn lessons and avoid similar mistakes but can capitalize on what did work well. You can apply these into your daily work and constantly grow as a person and as a leader.

Thanks to John and Sheila Spence for the difference you made down under in New Zealand with the RESULTS team and with our clients. We learnt a lot and look forward to a long association with you.

Kendall Langston

Business Strategist - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Kendall Langston

Just say NO

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:30:00 GMT

Business leaders tend to be incredibly busy individuals. “Busyness” should never be confused with effectiveness however. We need to switch from being busy, to achieving results.

Assuming you have a clear vision for your business, and have carefully chosen a small handful of strategic projects to focus on this quarter (one to three maximum) – i.e. those actions which will position your firm for future success in your industry – you must ensure that you and your people devote a sufficient % of your time each week to work on activities aligned to achieving these project outcomes.

What % of time do you spend focusing on strategic projects that will move your business forward? If you take a typical week and track every hour how you actually spend your time, the answer will likely shock you.

Warren Buffet once said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say NO to almost everything.” Very successful people force themselves to focus on what is strategically important and eliminate everything else.

Peter Drucker recommended that business leaders concentrate on the few things that will produce the greatest results. Do first things first - and second things not at all.

There are always more things to do than there is time available. The changing environment outside your firm is the only area where results occur and that is where leaders need to focus their attention. But pressures always drag you back inside the firm. They drag you into what has happened, over what will happen in the future - the current crisis over the future opportunity - the urgent over the important.

Creating a winning strategy, with clear strategic projects is the first step. To do that, you need to employ a disciplined strategic decision making process. However, the execution of strategic projects is still the major challenge for most business leaders, and it often requires a “stop doing list.”

Drucker offered the following tips to help you become a more effective business leader:

Put all activities, products, services, and people regularly "on trial for their lives" and get rid of those activities and people that cannot prove their productivity.
Do not invest any more resources into activities that are no longer productive – or those that are unlikely to be productive in the future
Prune ruthlessly. Yesterday's successes always linger long beyond their productive life. Cut out activities that have ceased to promise future results. Ask - is this still worth doing?
Put your best people to work on the opportunities of tomorrow, not fixing the past
Get rid of everything else so you can focus on the few activities that if done with excellence, will really make a difference in the future. Everyone is already too busy working on the activities of yesterday.
Have the courage to get rid of an old activity before you start a new one.

It is too easy to keep adding more activities, more projects, more products, more services. As I often tell clients, effective leaders need to have the courage to "prune the rosebush" – because that is exactly what you must do if you want to create beautiful blooms.

It sounds simple, but simple does not necessarily mean easy. It's hard to stop doing things we have become attached to.

Take a look at your current activities / products / services. What is on your “stop doing list” this year?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

The three ingredients for growth

Tim OConnor — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 10:30:00 GMT

A friend of mine recently pointed me to the State of the Business Owner research project. This project is undertaken each year and surveys hundreds of small business owners to collect their opinions and to capture data about what is working and what is not.

The results from the most recent report clearly identified that new business growth was the top priority for business owners. This would be achieved through the acquisition of new clients and identification of new revenue streams.

But more importantly, the research also defined in strong link between growth and three important ingredients that where shared by the most successful businesses.

Companies that espoused these ingredients demonstrated leadership in overall revenue, year-on-year revenue growth, owner compensation and optimism about the future when compared to firms that did not. The three ingredients are:

Vision.

Just under half of the companies surveyed had a written description of the desired future state of the company, however these companies grew 50% faster that those without this ingredient.

Plans.

Companies with written plans for how to achieve growth and revenue goals, along with accountabilities, grew 60% faster than those firms without.

Data.

Business owners that looked at both financial results monthly but also tracked key business metrics personally earned 60% more than their peers and tended to run larger companies.

This research validates the work we have been doing over the past 17 years here at RESULTS.com. Helping clients get clear about a desired future state (the vision) is always the starting point. The vision creates the ‘tension for change’ needed to create excitement and engagement with employees about the future.

Once the vision is clear, then every firm needs a plan; a roadmap. Written strategic plans include both long and short term priorities, goals and targets, along with action plans and clear accountabilities for who will do what by when.

And finally, data. Data is more than just financial or historic results, but also the definition and tracking of those leading Key Performance Indicators that can predict the future success of the business.

These three principles are also found in the RESULTS Business Execution software which drives visibility, accountability and engagement throughout the organization.

How does our firm measure up? Do you have the ingredients to put together this successful recipe?

Access to the full report referenced here can be found at stateoftheowner.com

Tim O'Connor

CEO - RESULTS.com Canada

There is a problem with your strategy

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 10:30:00 GMT

The majority of managers believe that their companies lack a winning strategy. They struggle to set a clear and differentiating strategy, struggle to ensure that their day-to-day activities are aligned to executing their strategy, and they struggle to allocate resources in a way that supports the strategy - according to a Booz & Co survey of more than 1,800 managers.

The problem with most companies:

According to the survey:

52% of managers don’t feel their company’s strategy will lead to success.
49% say their company has no list of strategic priorities at all.
67% admit that their company’s capabilities don’t fully support their strategy.
43% say their strategy does not differentiate the company in the market.
53% say that the way they create value is not well understood by employees or customers.
64% say that their biggest frustration is “having too many conflicting priorities.”
Most worrying, only 21% are fully confident that they have a winning strategy.

Do you have a problem?

According to the survey, companies who have a small handful of (no more than 3) strategic priorities have higher profits and revenue growth - compared to those firms having a longer list of strategic priorities (or worse, no clear strategic priorities at all).

I find it tragic that only 1 in 5 managers believe their company has a winning strategy. According to the authors, companies with more “coherence” - where strategy, capabilities and product/service offerings are in sync - perform better financially.

There is clearly a problem with the way most companies set strategy. Most companies struggle to choose their key strategic projects. Even when they do, they lack the ability to focus on the execution of these priorities and actually get these things done.

The root of the problem is that too many companies grab hastily for what seems like the next answer to growth. They blindly follow the latest trend or whatever they see their competitors doing. They don’t use a disciplined strategic planning methodology to decide the critical few strategic moves that will lead to future success. They end up stretched thin, trying to do a little bit of everything and doing nothing well.

What do winning companies do?

Winning companies carefully choose their path to future success: They choose what they will become excellent at - rather than just trying to sell what they currently do. They get very clear on what differentiates them from competitors, and how they will create value for their customers in the future.

They focus sufficient time and resources on “creating what will be” rather than just “improving what is”.

How confident are you that your company has a winning strategy?

Do you think that more than 1 in 5 of your managers agree with you?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Marcin Rybarczyk

The art of Setting Lofty Goals

Kendall Langston — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 10:30:00 GMT

I am lucky enough to live in the leadership space. Every day I am paid to lead the company to set and achieve the goals set by our strategic plan. Every day I am influencing people and their activities. Every day I am overcoming the challenges that this throws my way.

I am also lucky enough to work with CEO's from our client companies as they face the same challenges and there are common themes that come up tend to be the focus of discussion whether formally or over a coffee. Leadership is a lifelong journey and the reality is you never stop learning new things or new ways to motivate people to do the things they need to do.

Inspiration comes from setting positive future expectations. It is a leader’s role to articulate the future, to bring the vision to life for people, and to set compelling goals that move people, teams and organizations forward in our increasingly complex business environment.

A book that offers some great insights in this space is "The Inspiring Leader: Unlocking the secrets of how extraordinary leaders motivate" by John H. Zenger et al. Their research into setting stretch goals shows that leaders who set good "Lofty Goals" can inspire their team to do the actions needed to move fast and to be successful, and that they tended to do the following;

Have the courage and willingness to take calculated risks.
Have the confidence to get team members to embrace a new reality.
Set realistic goals.
Remain personally involved & this is key to raising the bar.
Follow through and then follow through some more.
Benchmark against other high performing organizations.
Identify peak performers in the organization and support them.
Utilize team dynamics to achieve goals.
Constantly improve processes & remove bureaucracy.
Celebrate & reward success.

I found it interesting to not only read about the thinking in each of these steps and what the research shows, but to write them out and consider them in context as to what I should do to improve my performance as a goal setter. Here is my take on the list;

There is definitely a knack to defining the future. It is a mix of understanding trends and balancing what is known and what can be anticipated. Based on the premise that any plan is better than no plan, there is always an element of risk required and some self-confidence to not only decide upon a course of action, but to articulate it to your team. Outlining the need for change is a critical to obtain buy-in from your team.

Remaining personally involved makes it easier. It is easier to measure progress, and unblock the things that get in the way of executing the plan. There is a need to constantly set expectations, encourage & support any team of clever people but this must be balanced with not getting in their way. Many times I suddenly realize I have become a blockage or bottle-neck because I am too involved!

Following through and ensuring people do what they say they will do is a critical part of ensuring success. This is where people are held accountable. A culture of accountability leads to higher engagement of the team.

Supporting your "A players" to get better and to go "above and beyond" is a far more rewarding and effective (so the research shows) than constantly working to lift the game of those not performing. The reality is that a talented few will always outperform many in the team and these stars need encouragement, guidance, mentoring and support along the journey. Leveraging the team strengths to support the activities of those leading the way is a great way to build culture & to ensure success.

I find myself constantly trying to improve processes to create simplicity and to get rid of the blockages that slow the execution of the plan. On any given day it is essential to understand what is hindering progress and to quickly kick the hurdles out of my team’s way. This should be a focus of every leader, and you need to be personally involved to do so.

Celebrating and rewarding success is the fun part. Of course in order to do so, you need to define up-front what success will look like and how we will reward it. Ongoing recognition and praise through Core Values stories, client success stories, or project success stories is absolutely essential to build a good culture and to retain clever people. It is too easy to focus on the negative, the problems, or the blockages and to not spend enough time to celebrate success and achievement.

Setting the right "Lofty Goals" is a real art but one that a leader must experiment with and get better at in order to inspire people about the future and what they need to achieve. If you set goals that are too high and not realistic, or too easy then the power of goal setting is never realized.

What are the "Lofty Goals" you are setting for your team that will drive extraordinary results?

Kendall Langston

Business Strategist - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Kendall Langston

Business Execution lessons from fighter pilots

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 10:30:00 GMT

The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) was a concept originally applied to fighter pilots, developed by Colonel John Boyd of the US Air Force. OODA has since become an important concept in both military strategy and business strategy.

Today’s rapidly changing business environment creates the opportunity for firms to gain a competitive advantage if they can understand the impact of the changing environment, and respond with the right actions – and implement them more rapidly than competitors.

Consider a fighter pilot involved in a dogfight with enemy aircraft. One of Boyd's winning insights concerning aerial combat - was the need to change speed and direction faster than the opponent. Using the OODA process, the pilot must think and act faster than the opponent can think and act. This puts adversaries off balance and increases the likelihood of victory.

The same principle operates (over a longer timescale than a dogfight obviously) in today’s hyper competitive, increasingly globalized business landscape. The proactive and conscious application of the OODA process can give your business an advantage over competitors who are merely reacting to conditions after they occur, or who have a poor awareness of the strategic impact of the forces that will shape your industry in the near future.

Observe:

As a business leader, you must lift your head out of your day to day “business as usual” activities, and take a good look at what is going on around you. Be sure to perform a disciplined strategic analysis of the key factors that are impacting - or are likely to impact your industry in the near future. We recommend a thorough high-level industry analysis once a year, with strategic review every quarter in order to create and refine your winning strategy.

Orient:

This is where you form your hypotheses about the evolving situation in your industry answering (but not limited to) questions like:

Who are the key players in your industry and what moves are they likely to make?
What new entrants could disrupt your industry?
What alternative options could substitute for what you offer?
What moves are your suppliers likely to make?
What moves are your customers likely to make
Are there any regulatory changes that could impact your industry?
What impact will the economy have on your business model?
What societal or behavioral changes could impact your industry?
What technology changes will influence your industry?
Who are your early-adopter customers and what are they getting into now?

Based on the questions above, what strategic moves do you need to consider making to address these future scenarios?

Decide:

Now it is the leader’s job to decide what action you will take. The military teaches their officers that any decision is better than no decision. The decision to “do nothing” is still a valid option to be considered; but it needs to be a conscious choice.

Don’t fall into the trap of continuously “improving what is”, when your strategic analysis points to the need to “create what will be” – which could be something very different to what you are doing now. Just sitting there conducting business as usual, and hoping things will work out is not a winning strategy!

Act:

Now you must fully commit to your chosen course of action. Unfortunately, Harvard research shows that 90% of companies fail to execute their chosen strategies effectively.

The 10% who can effectively set and execute a winning strategy - are those companies that employ a disciplined strategic execution framework, and use tools like business execution software to make sure these things get done!

Can you execute like a fighter pilot?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

How to change what cannot be changed

Bernie May — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 10:30:00 GMT

How many psychologists does it take to change a light bulb? Just one, but it has to really want to change.

Trying to Change Others' Behavior.

Management (and life) would be so much better if we could make people change when we needed them to. Business execution and getting the results we want would be so much easier if people just did what we told them to.But it doesn't work that way. I've tried changing how other people behave. Most of the time it was unsuccessful. On those rare occasions that it worked, it didn't last. Often it was counterproductive and a waste of time. Like trying to get my daughter to pick up in her room.

And this is the irony of leadership. As leaders we're expected to execute plans and deliver results with a group of people, things that cannot be accomplished alone. Which means changing who they are so we can get the job done, doesn't it? Maybe.Our greatest power in shaping company behavior is who we choose to hire, and where we choose to put them to work. Which means that performance reviews aren't for the benefit of the employee. They're for the benefit of the company. They answer the essential questions of: Who is ready to be promoted? Who is almost ready and what do they need to make them ready? Who isn't ready? Who is in the right job, and who isn't?

Giving staff feedback based on our evaluation of them is just a nice-to-have side-effect which makes the employee feel better (maybe), but most importantly is a good final check of our evaluation. So then, what tools can we use to create high performers and high performing teams? What influence do we bosses have to increase our chance of successful execution and outstanding results through the people we have chosen to work with?

Positive Reinforcement.

Positive feedback shapes behavior over time. Negative feedback shuts down behavior. Think about punishing a dog for not coming when it's been called. The problem with positive feedback is that it takes a time, consistent application, and patience. This isn't always compatible with the day-to-day urgency some of us need to perform under.

Sometimes it seems like we've been handed a toolbox of random tools and we have to figure out how to use them to replace the brake pads on your car. But that's the manager’s job. Sometimes we have to do what we can with what we have where we are right now. There's no point in being mad at the tools.

And really, as a manager, your job is not to change people to execute perfectly (i.e. the way you would do it), whatever the job is. Your job is to discover the strengths of the people working for you and figure out how to put those strengths to their best use. If you don't have the right people (or tools), maybe that's the problem.

Change the Team.

If you're lucky enough to control who is on your team (you have the power to hire, fire, or transfer), then really you have no excuses for running an under-performing team. Once you've done everything you can to coach, mentor, and train people to do the job they were hired for, and the results still aren't there, then you need to consider if there's another position, a position of lessor responsibility, or any position inside the company at all for them.

Managers owe it to the company and everybody in it not to tolerate poor performance. If you consistently choose unsuitable or under-performing staff, then perhaps you need to look in the mirror to find the solution.

Negative Feedback.

Frequent, friendly focused and actionable feedback is one of those simple things that outstanding managers do well. Negative or constructive feedback is only one specialized tool in the manager’s toolbox. Much like a torque-wrench or a brake-puller, it should only be used when needed, in the right hands, and in the right way.

Negative feedback is most effective when it is used with "A" Players or high performers. High performers invite, accept, and act on criticism. They're good and want to get better. Using negative feedback on a consistently under-performing staff member is like using a hammer to remove a screw. You're just going to get frustrated and end up with dents in your work. Instead, consider catching them doing something right and build on that.

How to Change What Cannot Be Changed.

So there are three tools we can use to manage our teams. Positive feedback (to shape behavior over time), negative feedback (improve the performance of your high performers), and staffing (deliberately choosing whom you work with).

Remember to use the right tool for the right job. Now go execute and get results!

Bernie May

Business Execution Specialist - RESULTS.com

Tips for giving feedback to employees

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:30:00 GMT

Studies on motivation have identified reasons why much of the feedback managers give to their employees isn’t very motivating or constructive. Here are some tips to do a better job of giving feedback.

Start by looking in the mirror.

If an employee is not achieving the required standards, most of the fault lies with the manager. Have you hired the right person for the role? Are you providing the necessary coaching and support? Are the goals you set realistic? Are you measuring performance and holding people accountable regularly? Do you have an effective set of “real” Core Values to guide and align people’s behaviors?

Just the facts.

Use objective data and directly observed behaviors as the basis for your feedback. Discuss facts, not your opinions. Ideally, every employee should have 1 Key Performance Indicator number that measures good performance in their role, so they know (at least every month) whether or not they are meeting the required performance standard (Business Execution Software can really help here).

Every company should have clearly stated Core Values that are kept visible, and which clearly describe the behaviors that need to be exhibited by all staff.

Straight talk.

When performance standards are not being achieved - or behaviors are observed that run contrary to the company Core Values, you need to have the courage to take the employee aside and tell them the truth. Don’t put your head in the sand and hope the issue resolves itself. Yes it can be uncomfortable for both parties – but this is what managers are paid to do.

Don’t make the mistake of protecting people’s feelings at the expense of the truth, because without your honest feedback they will not see the need to improve.

When things go wrong - avoid praising effort.

“At least you tried hard.” It sounds helpful and positive, but studies show that consoling people for the amount of effort they put in when they fail – actually makes people feel worthless and incapable.

Instead, share your positive belief in the employee and that success can be achieved if they take the right actions. Focus on things that are within their power to control. Be specific about what needs to happen, and help them figure out what tangible steps they can take to improve. Helping your employee figure out how to do it right is just as important as letting them know what they are doing wrong.

When things go right - avoid praising ability.

“You’re a great salesperson.” It sounds positive, but studies show that when we are praised for having high ability, it makes us vulnerable to self-doubt when we encounter difficulty later on (this concept applies to the way we praise children as well).

Instead, praise the aspects of your employee’s performance that were under their control. Praise the observable actions they took - not the person. For example, talk about their creative ideas, their careful planning, their determination to see the task through to the end etc. That way, when they run into difficulties in the future, they will remember what behaviors helped them to succeed in the past and put these to good use.

Click here for more tips on what really motivates employees.

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Digital Dashboards: A business case

Tim OConnor — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 10:07:00 GMT

The implementation of digital business dashboards in companies drives productivity and performance improvements in many areas. This fact has been illustrated and verified by a variety of research studies in the past decade:

A 2009 major study of 285 enterprises reported that companies using business dashboards experienced 24% year-over-year increase in operating profit, along with significant improvements in customer service and sales year-over-year (Aberdeen Group).
A survey of 113 IT executives in 2005 reported improvements in decision-making, operational efficiencies, and the creation of intellectual capital through the use of business dashboards. 56% of respondents reported improvements in these areas as significant to the business, and half reported full payback of the investment in dashboards in less than 1 year (Hurwitz & Associates)
In a 2012 study, “A full two-thirds of the 250 respondents surveyed claim to have seen clear financial benefits from their dashboards by improving operational efficiency (64 percent), uptime for critical services (51 percent) and company productivity (44 percent). The average estimated bottom-line contribution of their executive dashboard (without subtracting costs for ROI) was approximately $250,000 over a 12 month period, while about 25 percent claimed to have seen more than $500,000 in value from their dashboard.” (CA Technologies).
In a 2010 worldwide study, 450 interviews were conducted and found “Over the last five years, productivity has increased with 79 percent of organizations using computerized systems to manage goal execution and productivity, compared to only 47 percent of those using a paper, email and spreadsheet based system.” (Successfactors)
An in-depth study of 40 corporations of various sizes compared the behaviors of goal alignment to financial performance. The results indicated “44% of the stronger performers have almost 100% aligned goals at the managerial level. None of the weaker performers do.” (Workforce Intelligence Institute)

RESULTS.com Business Execution software is a turnkey digital dashboard for small and mid-sized companies. It is a subscription based service (Software as a Service, or SAAS) that provides companies the ability to visually represent Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), goals and priorities in a simple web-based format. Each KPI, goal and priority has an individual and team owner to ensure clear accountability for performance.

Through the dynamic and ongoing updating of key numbers and goal status, performance of all aspects of the business and of each employee is visible to management.

Further, because performance is visible across teams and individuals, all employees are motivated to perform at or above target levels.

So what are you waiting for?

Tim O'Connor

CEO - RESULTS.com Canada

How to do a better job of connecting with others

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:30:00 GMT

According to the Harvard Business Review, the No.1 criteria for advancement and promotion for professionals is an ability to communicate effectively.

Author John C. Maxwell, states, “Only one thing stands between you and success. It isn’t experience or talent. To be successful, you must learn how to really connect with people. And while it may seem like some folks are just born with it, the fact is anyone can learn how to make every communication an opportunity for a powerful connection.”

Connecting with others is not a talent that comes naturally to me. I’m a task-focused “do it now” kind of person. Whilst I am good at “getting things done”, I am not naturally strong in the “taking care of people” aspect of leadership. For me, it is a learned behavior, and something that I continually work on.

Fortunately one of my mentors shared a great mantra which has proved immensely helpful to me: “Spend 2 minutes longer with a person than you normally would, and ask them 2 more questions than you normally would.”

Here are some other tips I’ve picked up:

Give yourself.

In social situations, go first. Initiating a conversation often feels awkward. It means risking rejection. Prepare two or three questions you can ask beforehand. At the close of a conversation, ask if there is anything you can do to help them and then make sure you follow through.

Pay full attention.

Eliminate or tune out distractions. Look away from the screen. Put what you are doing down. Give them your eyes, body, brain, and energy. Take a genuine interest in what the person is saying.

Show that you care.

When you are trying to connect with people, it’s not about you - it’s about them. Don’t just focus on getting your opinions across, or telling them about how great your product or service is. Talk more about them, and less about you. Focus on them and their needs. If you are in sales, and you want people to take action - they will do so for their reasons, not yours.

It’s about the feeling.

People will not always remember what you said or did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.

More than words.

It has been said that:

What we say accounts for 7% of what is believed.
The way we say it: 38%
What they see: 55%

If this is true, more than 90% of the impression we make is nothing to do with what we actually say. People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude. The exact words you use are far less important than your passion and conviction in saying them.

Be authentic.

Know yourself. Know your audience. Know your stuff. As jazz great Charlie Parker once said, "If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn."

Keep it simple.

Cut to the chase before your listener starts thinking, "What’s the point?"

Being simple as a communicator isn’t a weakness - it’s a strength. The measure of a great teacher isn’t what the teacher knows; it’s what their students learn. Albert Einstein said, "If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough."

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition.

The first time you say something, it’s heard. The second time, it’s recognized. The third time, it’s learned.

I've also heard it said that, "At the point when you are getting sick of repeating yourself, other people are only just beginning to hear it for the first time".

Who do you need to do a better job of connecting with today?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - RESULTS.com

Predictors of business execution success

Bernie May — Sat, 09 Mar 2013 11:30:00 GMT

I have started noticing that when I begin consulting with a new client, very early on I get a pretty solid feeling on how the next year is going to go. I haven' t made it a disciplined study, but I think I'll open a file on my smartphone and start keeping track of which clients I think are going to be successful, and which ones might struggle. Success being defined as being able to improve their business in a way that's favorable to them (more revenue, more profit, or however they define it).

I think I've figured out which three tangible behaviors I have subconsciously noticed that help me predict success in business:

1. Relationship Orientation.

The ability to influence, persuade, and to effect change comes from relationships, not by how much you know, or your position on the organization chart. To get to and operate at the senior leadership level, you need more than positional or technical authority. You may need to reach for one of them that once in a while, but as Aristotle said:

Anyone can become angry -- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, this is not easy.

Yes, I'm saying that relying on positional authority looks the same as being angry. Taking the time to build relationships is a much more powerful way to get things done.

How to Test For Relationship Skills:

People with strong skills or natural ability in building relationships are also good at maintaining them. If you're looking to fill a leadership (or teamwork-intensive) position, there are a couple of questions you can ask during the interview: Who is their oldest friend that they still keep in regular contact with? Who would they call to bail them out of jail in the middle of the night?
Who are you that person for?

2. Learning Orientation.

At RESULTS.com I work with ambitious, open-minded business leaders. That's actually how we describe our target market customer. Those that don't get it are easy to spot: they are busy defending the business they used to have. They are busy being “right” and haven't figured out what they need to do better, or what they need to stop doing. Their competitors are eating their lunch, their market has changed, and they haven't (or pretend they haven't) noticed.

Learning-oriented CEOs are always trying new things in a disciplined way, discarding as quickly as possible what doesn't work, and driving changes in process, people, and tools deep into the business as quickly as possible. They are not risk takers - they are risk averse. The risk they're fighting is becoming redundant, obsolete, or bankrupt.

Managers are paid for their judgement, but they are not being paid to be infallible. In fact, they are being paid to realize and admit that they have been wrong - especially when their admission opens up an opportunity. - Drucker

How to Test for Open-Mindedness:

What's the last book you read? Seminar you attended? Skills upgrade course you took? What did you like about it? What didn't you like about it? Open minded leaders are always learning, and always thinking critically. What are you doing to learn how to be a better business leader?

What's the biggest mistake you made recently, and what did you learn from it?

3. Execution Orientation.

This one is easy - accountability is made up of two things:

a. Did they do what they said they were going to do?

In the first week and month of an engagement we ask for lots of data. It's a "knowledge before action decision" cycle. Yet some businesses and leaders act as their commitment to provide the data or complete the surveys isn't important.

They can't get the little things done, and then wonder why they're spending all their time with their hair on fire. This is where RESULTS.com can often help the most: helping them to create a winning strategy, and then helping them to drive business execution. But then some people enjoy the appearance of running around with their hair on fire.

b. Transparency, tracking, & reporting progress

The second component of accountability is transparency. Modern corporations, or teams of any kind, depend on specialization and individual contributors working together. But if nobody knows the work is done, that work useless to the organization.

The willingness and openness to "show your work" as it progresses helps us avoid the "90% done 90% of the time" problem and spot problems early while we can still do something about it. The last week of a three month project is not the time to find out that it's going to miss the deadline by three months. Especially if other work, your strategic advantage, or even the survival of the company depends on it.

The signals and signs that a project is off track usually show up early and exist for the majority of the life of the project. Early enough to do something about it. How do projects and priorities get late? One day at a time.

Have the guts to demand people plan milestones into their work and report progress against tangible delivers for that work.

Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. - Drucker

How to Test for Accountability and Execution:

When's the last time you were late on a deliverable, and what were the consequences? How do you ensure that a project is on track day by day and week by week? How do you know when a project or priority is off track?

Bernie May

Business Execution Specialist - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Anurag Agnihotri

More business execution wisdom from Peter Drucker

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Peter Drucker shared a wealth of timeless advice for business leaders. He is often referred to as the father of modern management. Here is another summary of his business execution wisdom.

Clear focus.

Leaders must clearly communicate the strategic priorities of the company so that their people know exactly what the organization is trying to do. Effective leaders say “No” to distractions and keep focused on the 2 or 3 things that will make the biggest difference. Too many leaders try to do a little bit of 25 things and get nothing meaningful done.

Build on your strengths, not weakness.

Successful leaders ask, "Of those things that will make a difference, which are the right tasks for me to perform?" You have your own leadership style for getting things done. Don't try to be somebody else. Effective leaders play to their strengths, and learn to say “No” to tasks they aren't naturally good at. Yes, they still make sure the other things get done - but not by them. They leverage the talents of people who are strong at performing those other necessary tasks.

Purposeful abandonment.

A critical question for leaders to ask themselves is, "What are we going to stop doing?” Stop investing in past activities or things that have achieved their purpose. Ask, "Is this still worth doing?" A dangerous trap for leaders is to continually pour more resources into those “not quite” successes - those projects where everybody says that if you just give it another big push it will go over the top. As I often say to clients, "You must have the courage to prune the rosebush if you want to create beautiful blooms".

Geographically dispersed companies.

Don't travel so much - you will get very little done. It is important that you see people maybe twice a year. Other times, make them come to see you, or use technology. Your locations must keep you well informed about their plans and progress in their area. Likewise, you must keep everyone well informed of the overall company strategic plan and your own personal priorities. Don't make them have to guess at what you are thinking or working on. Tools like business execution software keep everyone's goals visible, so everyone in the company knows what is important and how they contribute to the big picture.

Don’t be a prisoner of your own organization.

The moment you are in the office, everybody comes to you wanting something. You cannot be too available - or you will never get anything done. Make sure your people clearly understand the top priorities they are accountable for, and know how their progress will be measured. Meet regularly to hold people accountable for progress. Ask them what support they need from you in order to achieve their goals.

Discourage constant interruptions. Create sufficient time and space to be alone to focus on the achievement of your own priorities. (For recommendations, see these time management tips for effective business execution)

Test your decisions against reality.

According to Drucker, if you want to learn how to make better strategic decisions in the future, you must get feedback on how each of your past decisions played out against the actual course of events:

Did your industry analysis and strategic assumptions play out as you suspected?
Did your decisions work out as you plannned?
Did you achieve the targets and milestones you set? (Or were they just "pie in the sky" projections that looked good on the plan, but bore no resemblance to actual events?)
Were you too optimistic?
Did you even select the right strategic priorities to start with?
What did you do well and what did you do poorly in terms of driving business execution?
What are you going to do differently the next time you conduct strategic planning?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - Global Operations - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Jan Flaska

High performance leaders make time to plan ahead

Kendall Langston — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 11:30:00 GMT

As I go about my daily work with business leaders, I find myself constantly encouraging them to plan ahead. Being reactive leads to them constantly “playing catch-up”. As a team leader myself, I find it is a constant challenge to be one step ahead of the team, to see what is coming next and to shape the future so I understand the challenge.

I have written before about leadership lessons learned from the army. As an Army Officer I had it drummed into me by instructors that "time is seldom wasted in recon", meaning that it is important to take the time to look ahead, to understand what you are up against, and to create the bones of a plan as to how to deal with a range of situations that may present themselves.

So how do we plan ahead as well as maintain the busy tempo of business as usual? I use and recommend the following:

Plan key events in a year planner.

It sounds simple and yet it is rarely done. Map out public holidays, the working year, your own annual holidays (business leaders need time out), your quarterly and annual strategic planning days, as well as your team social activities. This year I went as far as planning a mid-winter ball and the annual Christmas function. Then ensure calendar invites go to all those needed for each event. Before the year has kicked off they are all locked into place. Update this regularly.

Have a clear cadence.

It is critical to have a cadence of business execution in place of weekly, quarterly and annual meetings. These need to have clear agendas and cover business as usual (operational matters) and strategic objectives.

There also needs to be a weekly cadence for the leaders of the organization to meet and discuss priorities and then cascade their decisions down to their teams. Information needs to flow through the organization. One on one meetings with each of your key team members also need to be in place to support, grow and develop them in their roles.

Lead the detailed planning.

Leading detailed planning and then ensuring successful business execution is a key function of any leader. Too often CEO's do not lead the push, nor provide a framework for detailed planning. Then they get frustrated when things do not get done. Whilst it is not possible to be involved in all detailed planning, the CEO should certainly be initiating it, providing a framework of meetings and supporting those responsible.

Give regular and clear updates.

Provide the team with regular updates on plans, projects and "our current thinking about the future”. Ask for feedback and input from the team. "Lack of Communication" by leaders is a common concern raised by many staff, so understanding what to communicate, how often and in what format is critical. Regular, collaborative communication is critical in building the culture you want.

Create brightness of future.

Regularly review your long term (10+ year) vision and 3-5 year strategic moves. Creating “brightness of future” and helping people to look further out is really important in building a stable and motivated team. Your one year operational plan and strategic actions can then be linked to your key strategic moves.

Ensure your people also plan ahead.

Having any plan is better than no plan, and the experience and effort put into planning for the future assists your people in dealing with change and it helps to develop their own leadership skills.

A key function of leadership is the ability to get ahead of the game, to see what is over the horizon and shape the options a company has for success. It is important to involve your team in planning and to have the best products, services and resources in place to ensure you kick a big opportunity right out of the park.

How is your planning for the coming year? How far ahead are you looking? How are you going to lead your team victory?

Kendall Langston

Business Strategist - RESULTS.com

Photo credit - Kendall Langston

How to give feedback to your top performers

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:30:00 GMT

A common management trap is to spend most of your time trying to improve the performance of the stragglers in your team. Instead, you should spend most of your time growing your "rock stars", your “A-Players".

A-Players can exist in any role and we define them as people: who consistently exceed the performance standards required in their role; and who simultaneously demonstrate behaviors consistent with the company Core Values.

Critiquing performance often causes anxiety for both parties. Sometimes critiquing an A-Player can be harder than critiquing a poor performer, because they can get offended at the slightest hint that they're not doing their best. Giving regular feedback is essential to keep all your people engaged however. Everyone has room for improvement and your responsibility as a manager is to help everyone on your team to realize their full potential.

Preparation and research.

Tools like business execution software make performance visible, and provide both parties with a tangible history of work that has been done, and progress that has been made toward goals. Also gather details of specific instances when you observed behaviors that you would like to discuss with the A-Player before you meet.

Consider: What price are they paying to be an A-Player?

The strengths that currently make them A-Players, also contain a flipside weaknesses that may hold them back in the long run. In order to achieve high performance, are they also caring for their people? Are they building a strong team around them? Are they maintaining a healthy work / life balance?

Start by thanking them for good performance.

Don’t assume A-Players know how well they are doing or how much you value them. Most managers do not praise their people often enough. See here for more information on how to praise your people the right way.

Start by stating specific examples of where performance standards have been exceeded, or where Core Values have been demonstrated, and genuinely thank them. Critique is more easily received if preceded by a genuine appreciation for their good work.

Now give them your constructive feedback.

Then show them the tangible evidence, or describe the specific behaviors that you have observed where you feel improvement is required. Describe the consequences and state how you feel about it. Don’t make any accusations or judgments about their character.

Ask them questions like, “What do you make of this?” “What solutions do you see?” “How can we improve this area?” The aim is to help them take ownership of the issue, and figure out solutions themselves. If they get stuck, then offer your ideas, “May I make some suggestions?”

Identify their personal goals.

Ask questions like, "What do you want to be better at?" "What do you want to achieve in the future?" This helps your A-Players to associate their current performance and behaviors to their stated goals. It also helps you figure out how you can align their goals with those of the company and retain them for the long-term.

Ask for feedback about yourself and the company.

Ask questions like, "What can I do better to support you?" “What do you think is the most important thing our company needs to do to improve?”

Agree next steps.

Confirm what specific actions they (and you) will do going forward to improve performance, capture them in writing, and agree when you will next meet to measure progress.

Frequency is key.

The higher the performer, the more frequently you should be providing feedback. A major key to business execution success depends on attracting, retaining and growing your A-Players. It is a wise investment of your time to meet all your people and sit down to formally discuss their performance at least every quarter.

When was the last time you sat down to have a 1 on 1 meeting with your A-Players?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - Global Operations - RESULTS.com

Photo credit: Dominik Gwarek

What business leaders can learn from non-profit organizations

Tim OConnor — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 11:30:00 GMT

I have been blessed over the past several years to have had the opportunity to work as a volunteer and director with two nonprofit societies. I have watched them evolve from a group of individuals with an idea to well-functioning, mature, and highly successful organizations.

I am continuously amazed by how much passion, energy, and creativity that the volunteers and core team members bring to the table. Interestingly, the level of enthusiasm and engagement I see in these organizations often surpasses what I see in most for-profit companies. This is remarkable when you consider that these people are not being paid or compensated in any way; they are donating their time and energy! What if we, as business leaders, could create an environment in our companies that generated the same levels of passion, commitment, and engagement with our employees?

In this article I want to explore some of the dynamics I see in these nonprofits and propose which elements can be applied in business. Furthermore, I would suggest that some leading for-profit firms are already adopting the behaviors described below, and these behaviors are creating a competitive advantage for them.

Clarity of Purpose.

Nonprofits and charities know exactly why they exist. These organizations are typically founded on some core purpose or cause – to house the homeless, to support education in the third world, to encourage and support entrepreneurship, etc. This clarity of purpose is a major factor in attracting people who want to contribute, whether with their time, energy, and ideas (volunteers); their money (donors); or in other ways. And those organizations that draw the greatest contributions are those that are most clear and forthcoming about their core purpose in all public facing communications.

In business there seems to be more confusion. I think this stems from the fact that many people assume businesses all have the same purpose – to make money for owners and shareholders. This is a very utilitarian definition of purpose, and many thought leaders, such as Simon Sinek (author of Start with Why), argue that making money is a result or a byproduct, not a core purpose. Leading companies exist for a bigger and more compelling “why,” and they ensure that the world sees and understands that core purpose.

Question for your business: Does your company have a clear purpose for its existence beyond just making money? Is that purpose obvious to employees, customers, and the public at large?

Healthy Communication.

In the nonprofit world, I find that communication is more open, honest, and robust. This likely stems from the fact that the people involved are not employees and, therefore, there are no “career limiting” conversations or taboo subjects. No one feels at risk of losing a job or looking bad in front of colleagues.

The very best companies in the world create and reinforce an environment where robust communication, even healthy conflict, is not only welcome but encouraged. Ground rules are established so that people can speak openly; they know that there are no “bad” comments, except for the things that don’t get said. It is only through having open conversations about difficult topics that we are able to address the root causes of issues and unlock the potential of real creativity and innovation.

This type of environment doesn’t just happen; it requires deliberate attention and modeling by leaders. Leaders need to encourage and reinforce “straight talk” without negative repercussions.

Question for your business: Does your firm foster an environment of healthy, robust communication? Is there “straight talk” at every level?

Goal and Performance Visibility.

If you arrive late for a sporting event, what is the first thing you look at when you arrive at the stadium, field, or rink? Most people immediately look at the scoreboard, absorb that information, and only then do they focus on the action.

The same applies in organizations. People want to know the score; they want to know how the organization as a whole, and in parts, is performing. And there is no point in keeping score unless we have defined the scorecard. That is where goals come in. Goals are definitions of specific, measurable outcomes to be achieved within a certain timeframe.

I have seen this done very well in the nonprofits I work with, and I believe it is tied directly to the fact that their core purpose is clear. If it is clear why the organization exists, then it is much easier to set clear goals in context. Examples could be number of dollars raised or contributed, the number of people housed, the number of kids saved, etc.

There are a variety of methods for tracking performance. I am very supportive of online dashboarding tools that provide the dynamic, real-time status of goals and that color-code performance as green, yellow, or red. Everyone in the organization, no matter their background, can understand the score.

Question for your business: Does your company track and share the score? Are the key numbers and performance-to-goals visible to the team?

Recognition and Collective Learning.

Both of the nonprofits I work with run significant events during the year, and activity levels rise significantly just prior to and during those events. Although processes and roles are well defined, there is always some amount of scrambling and unforeseen challenges that crop up and need to be addressed. Thanks to the good intentions of the team and their clarity of purpose and goals, these are generally overcome without too much stress on the system.

Shortly after these periods of increased activity, two important things occur: The first is a formal recognition of the team members and volunteers for their contributions. This is tied directly to the goals set for the event or campaign, and because performance is visible, as noted above, recognition of success is quite easy. This recognition can take a variety of forms, but publicly and formally taking the time to say “thank you” is often the best approach.

The second important thing that occurs is the capture of lessons learned. This is given appropriate time and a level of formality to ensure that good information is gleaned from all contributors, and the rules of healthy communication noted above are in play, so that team members can share all their perspectives, both good and bad.

Question for your business: Does your firm take the time to both recognize contributions and formally capture key lessons?

Business Application.

The disciplines listed above are not rocket science, but sometimes we, as business leaders, lose sight of the power of a highly engaged team. Studies show that highly engaged employees result in better performance, both financially and otherwise.

No organization is perfect, and certainly there are many opportunities for improvement in the nonprofit sector. However, on the dimensions listed above – clarity of purpose, healthy communication, goal and performance visibility, recognition and collective learning – many nonprofit organizations demonstrate best-practice behaviors.

Can your for-profit firm say the same?

Tim O'Connor

CEO - RESULTS.com Canada

This article was published in the Jan 2013 edition of Oilweek magazine.

3 proven keys to management success

Stephen Lynch — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:30:00 GMT

A survey of over 10,000 firms in over 20 countries, found 3 key success practices associated with top performing companies that every good manager should strive to follow. Companies that exhibit these best practices were associated with a 3% higher return on capital, 26% higher market valuation, and 70% faster growth.

Here my take on the 3 key findings of the survey:

1. Rigorous performance measurement.

The best practice firms are very effective at collecting performance data and managing their key processes. They evaluate their Key Performance Indicators (key metrics) regularly, and take immediate action to address any performance problems they find. Sadly, research shows that 92% of organizations do not know how to effectively measure performance.

2. Challenging targets.

Best practice firms set challenging short-term and long-term goals. Great firms have daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, and even 5-yearly targets. This provides employees with a visible staircase of what good performance looks like now; and what it will look like in the future as the firm grows and improves.

Using dashboards or business execution software to make performance visible, and color-coding the performance scores as " red", "yellow", or "green" is a powerful way to drive performance. As we have written previously, radical transparency drives business results.

Here’s where I see many firms come unstuck. Most entrepreneurs and high performing team members are optimists by nature. They like to set themselves challenging goals and targets and they're sure that everything will turn out well.

Unfortunately, they set their "green" performance thresholds for their KPI’s so high that they seldom reach them. They justify that by saying, "aim for the stars and you might reach the moon." In other words, even if you miss the really high goal, you'll still do well.

It sounds reasonable, but it doesn't work for most of us. It has the effect of people always being "in the red" in term of how their current performance is displayed. The proof is on their dashboard every day. They get used to being in the red. After a while it becomes the norm. They can become apathetic – "what’s the use?" Also, if they do not feel like they can immediately turn the score around, being “in the red” starts to become the norm – and people decide that if being in the red is always the case, then being in the red must be OK.

If you want to engage your people, make sure goals are achievable (with appropriate effort) and the "green" level of performance is agreed with the person accountable.

3. Consequences for performance.

The best firms acknowledge people who achieve the "green" target level of performance with praise and recognition. Most managers do not praise their people enough. See here for more information on how to praise your people the right way.

Under-performers are rapidly identified and provided with training and support. If efforts to improve their performance are not successful, they are quickly moved out of the firm. It is a common management trap to spend too much time trying to “fix” under-performers. See here for more information on how to hold people accountable.

How does your business rate?

There are many factors involved in creating high performance teams, but the 3 practices listed above are common to all the top performing companies.

How well does your company rate in these 3 key areas?

Stephen Lynch

Chief Operating Officer - Global Operations - RESULTS.com

The Results Way

Ben Ridler — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 12:30:00 GMT

The Results way is our philosophy of how to do business in the new world. It is based on extensive research of best-practices, what works, and what doesn't. And it’s based on our personal experience from more than a decade of working one-on-one with thousands of business owners and teams, helping them to grow their businesses and realize their vision.

Shared Vision and Values
Radical Transparency
Responsibility

While there are many aspects to the process, and we’ve built a whole lot of tools to help you execute it, you can boil it down to 3 key principals or philosophies that a company needs to embrace to really make things happen.

Here’s my view on each of these elements:

1. Shared Vision and Values.

All great companies have a vision for where they want to go. They share what they want to achieve so everyone in the company not only knows what the vision is; they buy into it. Do you ever get it perfect? No. Life happens, things change. However you have to start with a place to head to, to know whether you’re on the right track or the wrong track. Wandering around in circles won’t get you far.

You also need to understand who you are, in terms of the Core Values you hold dear as an organization. These are the rules of the game and set the tone for the behavior and culture that you will create.

Here’s why it’s so important. Without the Vision and Values, people won’t know if this is the right place for them. It will be harder to attract and keep those who you do want, and deselect those who don’t fit.

Ultimately, business is about people working together to do stuff. Get the right people, doing the right stuff and it works. Without a shared vision and values it’s pretty hard to know what is the right stuff or who are the right people.

2. Radical Transparency.

One of the most powerful things you can do to grow a company is embrace "radical transparency", which is all about making things visible. It’s about everyone knowing what they have to do, who did what, who didn’t do what, and knowing how everyone else is performing. Why is it so effective? Think of sports; there isn’t much point if you don’t keep the score. When companies and individuals embrace radical transparency there are some surprising and powerful outcomes:

A large increase in performance. What gets measured gets done!
Peer pressure on non-performers from other team members (which takes pressure off management)
Acknowledgement of high-performers and people who deliver results. This drives staff retention, motivation and ensures that the people delivering the results are the ones who get listened to vs. those who make the most noise.
Collaboration and support. People who are making an honest effort and not getting results, tend to get supported by others. People combine resources, work together, help each other and start to work better as teams to achieve the company and team goals.
Data takes the emotion, blame, subjectiveness and uncertainty out of the business. When you embrace radical transparency and share key data, people know the situation and rally to improve it.
Internal communication stops being an issue for your business. People know what's, what and can get on and do something about it.

I could go on and on about radical transparency, and probably will at a later date. There are many, many benefits to starting down this road. Once you have started, I can guarantee you won't go back.

3. Responsibility.

The other key philosophy is that we believe people should take responsibility for their results. By adopting the first two of our philosophies, you create the opportunity for people to work with some autonomy, to take ownership of their role, and to understand how it contributes to the business and helps the company and team achieve their goals.

With a shared vision and values, and radical transparency in place, company structures tend to flatten. People take ownership. Accountability happens through peer pressure and visibility. The outcome is that management can spend now more time being productive, teaching, training and supporting their teams to get results, and less time analyzing and reviewing performance.

Another great thing about having people take responsibility for their contribution, is that it creates a sense of ownership and accountability.

Accountability drives engagement. While that may seem counter-intuitive, there is ample research to support this and we’ve proven it time and time again. People want to know what's expected of them.

Here’s a few of the key things that need to happen in order to promote responsibility:

Ensure your team has a say in setting their goals and targets. Make sure they are achievable
Make sure they clearly know how their performance is measured and where the data comes from
Absolutely make sure they take ownership of their dashboards and goals being up to date and accurate.

When people take ownership they become more engaged. When they are engaged they are more productive. When people are more productive businesses are more successful.

This is a really simplistic look and a lot of the “why” behind The Results Way. As you’ve no doubt seen, we have created a whole lot of tools to support this process to come alive in businesses and teams, and we are continuing to improve them and build more.

I continue to be inspired and guided by our clients and the amazing things they are doing to embrace these philosophies and take them to new levels, the results they are getting, and passion they have for working with us to build a new way.

Ben Ridler

Chief Executive Officer - RESULTS.com

Making the case for accountability

John Spence — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:30:00 GMT

Recently I was asked why it seems so hard for some managers to hold their people fully accountable. There are several reasons:

They Don't Know How.

Although they'd like to have a high-accountability culture, they don't understand the process for achieving one effectively and efficiently. They assign tasks in a somewhat hap-hazard way and hope that the worker will “figure it out” and deliver an adequate… hopefully superior performance. Well, hope is not a strategy! Managers who want to create more accountability follow this five step process:

1. Establish 100% Clarity.

Remember this phrase: "Ambiguity Breeds Mediocrity." In order to hold someone accountable you must give them very specific, clear, measurable goals and outcomes. The key is to make the goals you assign, as much is possible, binary. That means it's either a one or zero, it is right or it is wrong, they achieved the goal or they did not achieve the goal – no guessing. The reason this is so critical is that it removes emotion from the equation. It is not me versus the employee… it is me and the employee together against the very specific, measurable, unambiguous goals and targets that have been set.

2. Gain Agreement.

If you want to hold someone 100% accountable – then you must gain their full, 100% agreement that they clearly understand exactly what is expected of them, believe it is reasonable, believe that they can attain it, and agree to deliver the outcome requested on the date required.

3. Track and Post.

Here is another phrase you should memorize: Visibility Drives Accountability. In order to hold your people fully accountable you must give them the information they need to understand exactly how they are doing against their goals. So the idea here is to figure out a handful of Key Result Areas that you will track very carefully and post everywhere. You have to make these metrics easy to understand and highly visible so that everyone in the organization knows precisely how they are doing at all times against their agreed upon goals.

4. Coach and Mentor.

For anyone who is struggling in achieving their agreed upon goals it is essential that you step in as early as possible to help them, coach them and mentor them back on track. In some cases they will need additional training, other times they may need additional resources, time, equipment, or motivation – and it is the manager’s job to determine what sort of assistance they need and provide it so that they can be successful in achieving the desired outcome.

5. Celebrate/Mitigate.

If someone does a fantastic job in delivering the required results, you should praise them lavishly – celebrate their success – make a positive example of them – give them lots and lots of positive reinforcement. On the other hand, if you have people on your team where you have: set exceedingly clear expectations, gained full agreement, tracked and posted their progress open (or lack thereof) and coached and mentored them in every way you can… and they still do not meet the expectations… then you must deal decisively with mediocrity.

This brings me to the other key reasons why many managers do not hold their people fully accountable:

They Don't Want To Be The Bad Guy.

Many managers are reluctant to hold their people accountable, not because they don't think it's a good idea, they simply don't want to be seen as a tough, mean, or unreasonable boss. A recent Harvard study showed that many managers, who are hoping to get promoted, refrain from holding their people 100% accountable because they want to get good performance feedback and stay in line for promotion, rather than being disciplined with their folks and getting negative reviews that might inhibit their climbing the organizational ladder. Let's just face it, it's not fun to have to tell someone they're not doing a good job – they are not meeting expectations – they might lose their job… that is not a happy conversation.

Because It Is Hard To Do.

Taking the time to create 100% clarity, with specific metrics around all your employee’s key goals takes a lot of time and effort. Creating a system to track and post all of that information is also challenging (although there are a number of excellent software programs that make holding people accountable much easier).

Taking precious time to stop and mentor/coach struggling employees is also time-consuming and challenging. And as I just mentioned, having to tell people that they are not meeting goals and that their performance is unacceptable is extremely difficult for many managers. So rather than go through the time, effort, challenge, and discomfort of creating a high accountability culture, unfortunately many managers decide not to hold themselves accountable… for accountability!

I understand that creating a high account-ability culture is difficult, time-consuming and challenging… but I also understand that lack of accountability is probably the single most expensive business issue I have ever encountered.

It is staggering to see the amount of money that businesses leave on the table or lose because of a low-accountability culture. For some businesses it's thousands, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars – for others it's millions or billions!

If I were to identify one single thing that would likely have the largest dramatic positive impact in most of the client organizations I work with – it would be increasing the level of engagement and accountability across the entire organization. For businesses that can achieve this, massive amounts of data indicate they will likely see a huge spike in profitability and a significant increase in market share – two things that most business leaders/managers want to achieve very, very badly.

John Spence

John Spence is the author of "Awesomely Simple – Essential Business Strategies for Turning Ideas into Action," and has been recognized as one of the top 100 business thought leaders in America and one of the country’s leading small business influencers.

Photo credit: Jason Morrrison

The Essence of Excellence

John Spence — Sat, 09 Feb 2013 12:30:00 GMT

Several years ago one of my clients asked me to deliver a speech for 1,600 of their people on "the essence of excellence." Putting together that talk was a daunting task and after weeks of research and talking to top CEOs around the country I finally settled in on what I felt were the three key watchwords of excellence: FDA

Focus.

You must be intensely focused on your own personal “philosophy of excellence,” a vision of what you are trying to achieve in your business and how you plan to make that a reality. It is also essential that your vision be extremely well communicated across the entire organization in a way that is easy to understand and truly compelling to your team.

Discipline.

You must have the discipline to actually live that philosophy of excellence and work towards your vision of success each and every day. It is not enough to write it down, create a plan and talk about it – everyone in your organization must be highly disciplined in staying focused on the plan. The sad truth is that most businesses only implement about 10 to 15% of their philosophy of excellence, so if you can create enough discipline in your organization to implement 40%, 50% or even 70% of your plan, you will dominate the marketplace.

Action.

The amount of success you achieve in your business will be directly proportional to the amount of action you apply to your vision and plan. Apply a modicum of action and your outcome will be mediocrity, apply significant action in your outcome will be success. So you must create a culture where people have a sense of urgency and are proactive in solving problems, looking for opportunities and finding new ways to add value to your customers.

So the key to achieving excellence in your business is to apply massive action with great discipline to your focused philosophy of excellence and you will be doing what is necessary to create a truly great organization.

But what if you're having a hard time defining your philosophy of excellence and what you should focus on in your business to make it great? Let me help you with that. Based on my 22 years of helping companies from the top of the Fortune 100 to mom-and-pop shops to brand-new entrepreneurial startups, I believe that if you focus on the following four areas you'll be building an incredibly strong foundation for success.

Create a strong value proposition where your business adds real value to your ideal target customer in a unique and differentiated way.
Create the systems and processes necessary for flawless operational execution that consistently delivers on the value proposition.
Create a performance oriented culture of extreme customer focus that refuses to tolerate mediocrity.
Hire top talent that embraces excellence and a high level of personal accountability then remove all barriers and bureaucracy and empower them to solve problems and serve the customer.

There are other items I could add to this list such as being superb at managing cash flow, making sure the all of your products and services are of the highest quality, staying informed of the competition and the threats and opportunities in your industry, but at the end of the day if you are fanatical in implementing the items I've listed above it is my strong belief that you are focusing on the key things necessary to build a sustainably successful business.

John Spence