Results oriented

One of the paradigms to get your head around sooner rather than later as a new manager is that the people above you will generally assess you in terms of results, whereas the people who work for you will often want to talk about the effort they have put in or what they intended to do.

The road to Hell is littered with good intentions!

Organizations stand or fall based on their results. Therefore, it makes good sense to base your feedback discussions around what was delivered, finished, achieved, or accomplished. Depending on whether you work in the public or private sector, military or third sector, or anywhere else, examples of this could be:

• Sales revenue

• Profit

• New business enquiries or orders

• Pages written

• Money saved

• Goals scored

• Queries resolved

The preceding list is a quantitative list—things that can be objectively measured in terms of quantity or numbers, as opposed to qualitative—subjectively assessed in terms of their "goodness or badness".

Straight away, you should see the value in taking this approach to giving feedback—it's simply not up for debate, as the numbers don't lie. And done in this way, you are continually focusing your staff's attention on improving the results of the organization—a strategy that your upper management will thank you for.

Note

Action Point

How is success measured in your organization?

Take a moment to note down the objective measures by which your staff's performance is measured: numbers, dates, amounts, and so on. Use these in your feedback conversations.