The only thing that matters is the results

I'm what some people call a 'touchy-feely' guy. I guess it comes with the territory. I'm a leadership coach and an Organisational Development consultant: people are my thing. I'm interested in what they do, what they think and what they feel.

Consequently I've always held the view that results are not the be-all and end-all of leadership and management. Vision, inspiration, passion, commitment: these are words I would have put ahead of "results" when thinking or talking about leadership.

Until the other day.

I was out running along Bowen Road - the jungly, pedestrianised road that cuts through Hong Kong's Mid Levels - thinking about how to talk convincingly to one of my clients about leadership. "Leadership is anathema to this guy," I thought. "All he cares about is results". Then it hit me. Leadership is all about results. Here's what I mean.

Most executives I coach want to "become a better leader". Together we read books, discuss case studies and talk about great leaders in history or in the world today. But there is one question I have not asked until now: "What results do you want to achieve?"

What do I mean by results? I mean traditional business results. Of course there are supplementary questions that go along with it: "When do you want to achieve these results, and over what time period?" But it is only when an executive has answered these questions sufficiently that I focus on the people. "In order to achieve these results, what must your people be able to do? To do this, what must they think? What must they feel? What must they believe?"

The answers to these questions lead to a final important question: "As a leader, what must you be, do and have in order for your people to achieve everything we just discussed?"

Regardless of what the leadership manuals say, this set of questions is the path to more conscious, insightful and better leadership. First figure out what results you want and work backwards from there!