Leadership Success: How to Transform the Results You Deliver
As a leader you are ultimately judged on the results that you deliver. The further you climb the career ladder the more you earn. This higher level of earning can sometimes lead to complacency which can result in performance going down rather than up. So how can you transform the results that you deliver and stay on the high performance track?
Get clear on the goals
What are you ultimately judged on? Contrary to what many of us believe, we rarely have a crystal clear picture or understanding of what it is we are expected to deliver. Clear goals allow you to say explicitly whether you have or have not delivered. They are not vague, fuzzy or a list of activities. If you are not crystal clear on what you are to deliver or on what your success is to be measured, make a pint of finding out straight away.
Allocate your time to things that contribute to results
Time is everyone’s ultimate limiting factor. We can buy more of it even if we wish we could. Before you can start to decide how to allocate your time, you need to know what the critical things are that contribute to you delivering results. We can all keep ourselves busy doing stuff but are you doing stuff that contributes to results? Remember the 80:20 rule. In essence, 20% of the things that you do contribute to about 80% of the results you achieve. So what’s your 20% that contributes towards 80% of the results you achieve?
Coach your team and provide feedback
It does not matter how driven or committed you are, you cannot do it all by yourself. You need a team around you that you empower, can solve their own problems and make their own decisions so that you deliver. Invest time coaching your employees and providing feedback on how they are doing and how to get better, so that they become more valuable to you and the organisation.
Develop a what’s possible mindset
Ask people to come up with 1 solution and chances are that you will get 10 problems. It is natural to focus attention on the obstacles rather than on what can be done. When you see yourself falling into this trap, step back and think about what is possible from where you are right now. Even a small step can act as a catalyst for moving forward and once you have momentum you start to make rapid progress.
Bottom Line – Leadership is ultimately about results and by having a clear direction, investing your time wisely, equipping others to be more self sufficient and focusing on the possibilities you can make huge steps forward to achieving more success as a leader.
Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective managers and leaders. For more information click here
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.