What makes one manager more successful than another manager in the same department or at the same level of a firm? Many things most likely, but one likely trait of the more successful managers is that they tend to manage to a specific business outcome. What do I mean by that? Well ask yourself this: How many times have you entered a new situation at work, and you become instantly aware of the person who is phenomenally busy? Sometimes, you identify whole teams that are phenomenally busy and yet…the pace of progress seems slow or otherwise impeded. Why do you think that is?
A shocking number of well-paid and well-experienced managers across all disciplines have the tendency to value the appearance of working hard and being busy more than working smarter. That is not to say they are not effective in their own way, but rather that they could be so much more effective given the number of calories expended each day by both them and their respective teams. The reason is often that they “shoot before aiming”.
In many businesses today, we sometimes value action above all things. Something is broken, jump right on that. A client makes an irrational request, jump on that too. While action and expediency are certainly important, so is “aiming before shooting”. When teams that work hard also seem slow or somewhat ineffective it is most likely because they do not spend enough time up front thinking about their issues and setting clear goals based on a specific business outcome or benefit to the business. If they did, then their efforts would solve problems more completely the first time and there would be less redirection and false starts. Ready, aim, shoot yields better results than ready, shoot aim every time.
It is critically important that before you send valuable resources off on a mission that you arm them with the knowledge of the business outcome you are trying to achieve. That means they know what they are trying to do before they get started. Does the effort retain revenue? Improve client experience? Bring in new customers? Solve a competitive issue? You get the idea. Everything that is not pure production must be tied back to a business outcome that can be measured.
Business outcomes are measured by identifying success criteria before the very first action is taken. Success criteria can be either quantitative, such as a benchmark or survey result, or qualitative, such as the reaction of a competitor. By identifying success criteria up front, you can make your team more effective and can often eliminate wasted cycles or efforts on outcomes that are not critical.
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