Getting Results

Getting results is not just about having a good team working with you. It's also about being able to structure an environment where getting results is a default outcome, not a hairs-breath escape!
regards,
Dwika-ExecuTrain


Tip #5: "Getting Results"
by: steven cerri

This is the fifth of Six Functions of Successful Executives©. We all know that whether you are a supervisor or a CEO or an entrepreneur or any level in between, you are supposed to get results. In fact, most managers think that's all their supposed to do... get results.

If you've been following my newsletters you know that I don't believe that. However, there is no doubt that one of the six functions of successful management and leadership is to get results.

Now getting results can be tricky, because getting results is not just the end point, it's also a process. I know one vice president of software development who gets results in a very chaotic way. Schedules slip, programmers don't know what's expected of them until it's late in the process, requirements are kept from them.... all those wonderful things that get in the way of achieving results in a smooth fashion. But because the vice president has good programmers working for him, they pull him out of the fire time after time. He and his team get results but not because he knows what he is doing but because his programming team knows what its doing. And so far, they've been able to compensate for him.

There is a better way. The better way is to structure, at any given time, an open and complete channel of communication that structures clear expectations from the manager to the direct reports and clear feedback from the direct reports to the manager.

Here is an example of one component of getting results. When discussing getting results with my direct reports I often tell them the following: "If you want to upset me, surprise me. I don't like surprises and you (i.e., the direct reports) are the people who will know first when some aspect of the task is in trouble or needs to change. My job is to help you be successful. So if you wait until you've exhausted all your possible interventions and then you come to me and it's late in the game and I'm backed against the wall, I'm not happy. However, if at the first sign that things might not be as expected or as planned you come to me and alert me, I might be able to help with resources, time, etc. and I may have sufficient time to help in some way. An early alert is much more useful than a too-late warning."

Getting results is not just about having a good team working with you. It's also about being able to structure an environment where getting results is a default outcome, not a hairs-breath escape!