Driving your results requires being in the driver’s seat – not in the back seat or passenger seat criticizing other’s efforts. When bosses or leaders are riding in the back seat, they lose their inner power, create mischief, and limit the results possible for their teams and customers.
Driving your results creates control, success, and recognition for you and your team.
Driving results does not mean dismissing your team’s ideas or the boss, management team, or board’s directives.
It’s learning to be flexible and resilient while developing decisive, confident, and solution-oriented approaches. These approaches occur when you learn how to work with and through others when driving over smooth and inevitable rough terrain to achieve intended results!
Shifting into The Drivers Seat and Achieving Results
- Responsibility and Accountability. Take time to write down results from the past year (or any time period), “What Worked?/What Didn’t Work?” Be specific about your successes and failures. All successful bosses and leaders make mistakes – own them! Now, create Brags! for your accomplishments. Then, have your team do the same work and share. These exercises will honor the job done and lessons learned and bolster you and your team’s confidence that together, you can drive the results required.
- Create What’s Next and Stay Out of the Trap. Instead of attempting to replicate what worked the last time, play the “What if …” game. “What if we could achieve this new result? What would it require?” Stay out of the trap of buying into each other’s fears. When they arise (and they will), have the person name the fear (“I fear the customer will be angry about this change in the project.”). Now, write down at least 5 ways it could work! (e.g., “I could ask my boss to talk with the client.”)
- Now, Write Down the New Stretch Goals! Develop them with the team. Ensure everyone’s voice is heard. Talk with the nay-sayers to see what needs to be reassessed or is being ignored. Don’t forget to get buy-in from your boss, other teams, and customers that the changes will impact.
- Hire an Experienced Executive Coach. Since you’re now in the driver’s seat, select the right coach for your leadership and business growth and your team. Remember, focus on the coach’s experience and ability to work with different types of people and produce intended results since no two teams will operate similarly.
- Use a Qualified Job Fit Assessment. It’s a highly effective way to distinguish differences between team members and to work effectively with them. These high-quality tools include long-term predictive validity needed to assess where you’re at today (the real you) and where you and your team members will be during the next year or so. These tools also focus on who you are (your natural thinking, core behaviors, and true occupational interests) and not how you want to be seen (more of the back-seat way of thinking). For example, selecting someone to handle the budget who hates working with numbers will only alienate others on the team, especially if you’re going over budget and the customer refuses to pay the additional costs!
- Do the Real Work! Real work is required (and experience, too) to drive the intended results. You can acquire the experience if you’re taking focused actions, being coachable, and driving the results (not attempting to hitch a ride in someone else’s vehicle)! Driving for results means asking for status reports, listening for actual work done, being open to new initiatives, and being willing to provide the resources needed. Remember, No Focused Action = No Intended Results! Stop settling for good enough (aka mediocrity), which is more of the back-seat way of thinking.
©Jeannette Seibly 2024 All Rights Reserved
Jeannette Seibly is a Talent Advisor/Leadership Results Coach with over 31 years of experience guiding leaders and bosses to improve their hiring, coaching, and managing practices and produce amazing results! And yes, achieving business success always starts with having the right people in the right jobs! She has been an Authorized PXT Select Partner for over 31 years. Contact Jeannette to learn more about this state-of-the-art job-fit assessment tool or how to coach and manage your people to achieve extraordinary results.
A note from Jeannette: Do you want great results from your team? Then, it would be best if you got in the driver’s seat to achieve the intended results. Want to tap into my 31++ years of experience? Contact me now with your questions!
It’s time to get honest and genuine! Are there days you dread managing people, projects, and your team’s financial performance? You’re not alone! Everyone has their blind spots! NOW is the time to get the guidance you need to make the right changes for 2024. I have extensive experience and wisdom guiding bosses and leaders to hire, coach, and manage their teams successfully. The bonus is that they achieve unprecedented results. Contact me to learn more about my in-depth, one-on-one, customized coaching programs.