Today's most successful business leaders and managers exercise their leadership in such a way that their people are held accountable whilst being empowered to make decisions, share information and try new things.
The mindset that each person brings to your organisation has an impact on its success. But, the mindset that you bring yourself in your leadership role will have the greatest impact of all - positively or negatively!
Unsuccessful leaders have mindsets that are fixed on the specific activities of the organisation. In comparison, great leaders focus on the outcomes.
What does successful leadership look like?
Most of us can think of clear examples of poor leadership and understand that it can be distressing and difficult to work within those organisations. Most of us can also think about great leadership and how that enlivens and drives an organisation forward.
“Success is not only the results you need to achieve, but it’s the behaviours that enable those results, or in other words, the culture and behaviours. Successful leaders work on both things. They work on driving results, but also they work on facilitating and building the culture they need in their team so that they take the ownership.” – Mark Fritz
Great Leaders Focus on Outcomes not Activities
Being outcomes focused versus activity focused will make a huge difference to your organisation. When staff focus on the activities their focus is on staying busy. There is no force driving them to do anything differently than what they did the day before. But, when staff are focused on outcomes, their focus is on achievement and they are motivated to look for better ways to reach the achievement faster.
It's no surprise then that the most successful leaders think and communicate in the language of achievement rather than activity. Great leaders bring an 'outcomes-mindset' to everything they do and focus on instilling that mindset in their people too. Where do you currently fall? Have a look at the table below and consider what kind of language you currently use.
Language of achievement vs activity:
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Language of Achievement Talk in... Outputs Deliverables Decisions Milestones |
Language of Activity Talk in... Inputs Tasks Discussions To-do lists |
Source: Book: Lead & Influence - Mark Fritz
So how can you move towards an outcomes focused mindset?
Moving from an activities-focused, to an outcome-focused mindset can be a difficult process as this requires leaders to give up control in favour of trust and collaboration. If you have found yourself in control of too many aspects of the business, you should consider if you are getting the most out of your people. If trust is the issue then this must be addressed sooner rather than later. If you are a CEO or MD that is looking to hold on to control of the business it is likely that you experience business fatigue - and at what cost?
Leadership and strategy expert Jim Alampi states that if you are currently holding on to high levels of control within your business then you are suppressing the skill and the knowledge within your organisation.
“You are missing a huge boat in terms of leveraging the skill sets, knowledge, and experience of all of the rest of your leadership team and people. And it usually means a company is so focused in the business that nobody is thinking on the business”- Jim Alampi
If no one is thinking on the business, how many resources, ideas and man-hours are going to waste? Ask yourself, what are your desired outcomes and does everyone else know that they are – or should be – working towards them? At future meetings, try mentioning your milestones more than your to-do lists, allow others to become accountable for their actions and discover if your company is full of activity or achievement.
As a business leader, do you let your people assume responsibility for what they do?
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