If You Aren’t Getting the Results You Want, It’s Because You Need to be a Better Leader
Winners like to win. This is just as true in business as it is in sports. In business, it’s our job as leaders to set up the game in such a way that our teams can win and celebrate success. If you as a leader don’t know how to set up the game to win and celebrate, you’ll lose the best talent you have because they get burnt out and sick and tired of the goal post constantly moving.
I don’t remember exactly who it was that first said to me “Your staff wants to perform for you, all you need is to show them how to win.” What I do remember is it was one of those things that, when I heard it, seemed like a brilliant insight from someone who had more experience than I did at the time. That was more than 10 years ago now, and it is still one of my core leadership beliefs.
Often when talking to other business owners I’ve noticed they’ll smack talk their teams and not speak about the teams they hired with respect and reverence. If the team is “not getting the job done” the leader or owner seems to blame the team instead of looking inward at the leadership. This seems ridiculous to me — I firmly believe it’s the other way around. Assuming you’ve hired skilled people who are right for the job and you’re working with a high-performing team, then lack of performance is your fault as the leader. Yes, I’m suggesting that if your team isn’t performing you aren’t leading well enough. Consider this: your people WANT to do a good job, they just NEED great direction.
I own an agency and for the last 10+ years my team and I have worked our butts off for clients. Most of the time clients are happy. However, sometimes it’s a giant debacle of missed expectations. Here’s the thing: as an overachiever, I have always wanted to deliver a finished product that will delight the heck out of the customer. I want to get paid when I provide value. My team and I can’t stand being lazy or delivering half-assed anything.
What I’ve learned is that when the clients aren’t happy it’s usually one of two things: either I didn’t ask enough questions to really understand what they wanted OR they didn’t know what they wanted so they couldn’t tell me. It’s nearly impossible to have a happy client when the client isn’t clear about what they want. This is true of all leadership. How can one possibly be expected to deliver a result that delights unless the one giving instructions is crystal clear about what they are asking for?
While this might be a slightly unpopular opinion, yes, I am suggesting it’s your job as a client or a leader to get as clear as possible about what end result you expect from your teams. This is true if the team is internal staff, a vendor, or an agency like the one I own. The clearer you are, the more likely you’ll get the result you’re looking for with the fewest number of revisions and closest to the budget that you can get.
If you’re working with anyone, let me encourage you to get really clear about what you are asking them to do before you engage them. Before you hire, know what you want. You should be able to write it down, draw a picture or a flow chart, and give instructions that are clear enough that the person about to do the rest of the work — or direct the team that is going to get the job done — is able to ask enough detailed questions to figure out what you are asking for.
Giving fuzzy and unclear instructions will get you messy and uninspiring results. Spend a little more time slowing down and getting to understand what you want so you can explain it to the team that will do the work. Here is a great hack if you want to get really clear put this at the very top of your proposal.
In 2 bullet points please state:
1. What is the opportunity
2. What do you want from me
For me, there are now two primary places I use this concept: when hiring a team and when selecting clients to work with. All these years later and after a few colossal mess-ups of projects and mismatches hiring teams, I seek people who seek clarity.
Clients who KNOW what they want and are willing to ask for it excite me. When I’m talking to a possible client, if they aren’t clear in initial conversations or able to answer the questions that I ask to get clear, I take it as a sign to bow out before it gets frustrating and ugly.
When hiring, I crave people who ask questions that show they seek clarity on the delivery of products so they can do the best job possible and have a win. It’s better to set up the game for everyone to win, otherwise, the best talent that’s ever walked into my office will walk right out and find someplace else they can win and celebrate.
In conclusion, my question for you is: where can you show up as a better leader and unleash your teams to deliver results that delight you the first time around?
If you’d like a little hack that we use at our agency, you can snag our How to Work With Overachievers that we use on our team to remind us to ask the right questions and get clear before we start a project. This isn’t always everything we need to ask, but it’s sure a good start.
