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Leadership Card 7 – The Benefits Of Clear Outcomes

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Having Something To Aim For Makes A Difference

Have you ever tried crumpling up a piece of paper, taking aim at the nearest waste basket, doing your favorite basketballer impression and shooting a three pointer while an imaginary crown goes wild?

Well, maybe your version wasn’t that elaborate (or maybe it was), but being able to see the waste paper basket – knowing it is there and having something to aim for makes a big difference in whether you get it in or have to take another try.

Can you imagine walking, blindfolded, into a room while holding the same crumpled up piece of paper, and throwing it in any random direction with the hope that it somehow makes it into a waste paper basket?

Well that’s exactly what the majority of businesses, startups, and teams within those businesses are doing today.  They’re going into business without a clear idea of what to aim for.  They’re delving into their work without clear outcomes.

Clear outcomes mean you have a clear objective – a goal, an aim, a target – and have taken the time to outline clear steps to get there.  Are the steps going to be right every time?  Of course not.  Despite what some people will tell you, no one can see the future.  But having something to start with and get you on your way certainly helps.

Now a few business disciplines have been misinterpreted and been taken completely the other way.  Agile, iterative planning, continuous development, the Lean Startup and Minimum Viable Products can (and have) been used as an excuse by lazy managers not to do any planning or set any clear outcomes at all.  Those managers say they will test and learn, and they don’t know what they don’t know.  And those managers are missing the point.  “Iterating” towards something still means you have to have a clear objective to iterate towards in the first place.  And having clear steps to start with is like having a flight plan that you can take off with, and adjust it as you go.

Apart from all that, the research actually backs up the approach of setting clear outcomes in a big way.  Teams and companies who set clear outcomes outperformed those who didn’t by 35% in their results, according to this Stanford University study, and found no less by the man who invented SWOT analysis (an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, well known by your typical MBA graduate).

So set clear outcomes with your team, do it collaboratively, and you will see a big improvement in your results.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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The Leadership Card Deck

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Leadership Card Deck Back

Leadership Card Deck 001 Introduction - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 002 Lean CX Ease of Use Employee Engagement Leadership Card 003 Lean CX Ease of Use Sales and Satisfaction Leadership Card 004 Lean CX Ease of Use Profit Productivity Leadership Card 005 Lean CX Ease of Use Absenteeism Turnover Leadership Card 006 Defects Theft Safety - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 007 Clear Outcomes - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 008 What is expected - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 009 Setting Clear Outcomes - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 010 Tie outcomes to meaning - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 011 Empathy and Clarity - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 012 Checking In - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 013 Focus on Strengths - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 014 CEOs Customers - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 015 Design the Situation - Lean CX Ease of Use  Leadership Card 016 What Workers Want - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 017 Intense Focus on Activity - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 018 Clear Objective - Lean CX Ease of Use  Leadership Card 019 Immediate Feedback - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 020 Certainty Variety - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 021 Significance Connection - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 022 Growth Contribution - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 023 Not Invented Here - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 024 - Curse of Knowledge - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 025 What looks like a people problem - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 026 - What looks like resistance - Lean CX Ease of use Leadership Card 027 What looks like laziness - Lean CX Ease of use Leadership Card 028 Make it Repeatable - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 029 Reduce the steps - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 030 Make it Visual - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 031 Impossible to make a mistake - Lean CX Ease of use Leadership Card 032 Checking In - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 033 Problem Solve - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 034 Rework - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 35 Excessive Hand offs - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 36 Waiting - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 037 Excessive Steps - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 038 Not getting what they want - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 039 Meaningful Work - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 040 Two Times Revenue - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 041 Million Dollar Checklist - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 042 Assertive Enquiry - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 043 Intrinsic motivation - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 044 Autonomy - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 045 Mastery - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 046 Purpose - Lean CX Ease of Use Leadership Card 047 Revealing Problems - Lean CX Ease of Use Lean CX 040 Leading Collaboration - Lean CX Ease of Use