4 Ways to Achieve Exceptional Results -- Continually.

Leaders live and die by results.? For decades, I’ve been teaching leaders of all ranks and functions worldwide to achieve not just average results but “more results faster, continually.” And “continually” is maybe the most important factor.?

A lot of leaders live by having people get more results.? They live by having them get more results on a faster basis.? But they die when trying to get “more, faster” CONTINUALLY.?

Here are four ways to make CONTINUALLY happen.?

Create Deep Expectations

1. Deep Expectations. Clearly, expectations are a self-fulfilling prophecy. When you commit yourself to the expectations that achieving anything less than ”more results faster continually” is unacceptable, you’ve created new contours for success.??

I call those expectations “deep expectations” because they involve the five results-drivers that go deeply into your organization.? The results drivers are: the strategies that marshal functions around central, organizing concepts; the tactics to execute those strategies; the resources to support the tactics; the people skills to promote great execution; and the motivational leadership to have the people be ardently committed to the execution.?

The strategies, tactics, resources, people skills, and motivational leadership must be viewed within the context of and tested by “more results faster continually.”?

Develop Deep Relationships

2. Deep relationships.? To promote CONTINUALLY, you must champion deep, human, motivational relationships with the people you lead. This means going beyond the relatively shallow relationships involved in order-giving environments.? The relationships cultivated in such environments don’t go much deeper, in terms of their human bonding, than those involved with the giving, receiving, and carrying out of orders.? When you order people to do a job, you may get more and faster results, but I submit that you won’t get more/faster CONTINUALLY.?

The power of deep relationships has been demonstrated since the dawn of history.? In all cultures, whenever people needed to do great things, one thing had to take place: A leader had to gather those people together and speak from the heart. Profound, heartfelt relationships had to be established for great things to be accomplished.?

Today, many leaders miss out on deep relationships that can lead to great results.? They may know such relationships are important, but they don’t know how to consistently create them, maintain them and enrich them.???

Think of a time when you’ve experienced a deep bonding with somebody -- not sexual as in a significant-other relationship -- but a bonding to achieve certain organizational accomplishments.? It might have been with a boss, a friend, a colleague ... doesn’t matter who, the important thing is the WHAT, the relationship.?

Now, picture yourself interacting with that person on one or more occasions.? What was the physical setting?? What was said?? What was done?? Recall what you felt.? Recall the bonding that took place.? What were the physical facts that gave you those emotions, that bonding?? What were the actions you took resulting from that bonding?? What were the outcomes of those actions???

You may conclude that those relationships led to better results – and provided necessary environment for CONTINUALLY.???

Promote Processes

3. Deep processes. How do we create and sustain those relationships?? One answer is through processes.? Processes, systematic series of mental or physical steps directed toward specific ends, cultivate clarity of purpose, continuity of responses, and repeatability of outcomes.?

A proven, robust process to advance CONTINUALLY is the Leadership Talk. The Leadership Talk is not about having leaders order people to do tasks, but having those people badly want to do those tasks.? The ability to have others “want to” separates average leaders from great leaders.? Hence, the Leadership Talk is a key driver of CONTINUALLY.? In fact, without employing Leadership Talks, leaders fail to create and sustain results-producing bonding between the leader and the people.?

Understand Deep Results

4. Deep results. If Leadership Talks are a key process in achieving the deep relationships needed to advance CONTINUALLY, what kind of results should CONTINUALLY encompass??

You can begin to get great results CONTINUALLY by having them flow through the prism of the Leadership Imperative.?

The Leadership Imperative is: I WILL LEAD PEOPLE IN SUCH A WAY THAT WE TOGETHER NOT ONLY ACHIEVE THE RESULTS WE NEED BUT WE ALSO BECOME BETTER LEADERS AND GROW IN THE BEST QUALITIES OF BEING HUMAN.?

You are never more effective as a leader as when, in getting more results faster continually, you are helping others be better than they are -- even better than thought they could be.??

Realizing Deep Results

Guided by the Leadership Imperative, you’ll find yourself realizing deep results.? Furthermore, those deep results will advance CONTINUALLY.? After all, if people know that in working with you, they will improve their job performance, boost their career, and enrich their lives, won’t they want to work with you ... CONTINUALLY??

Results, of course, come in many forms and are measured and evaluated in many ways.? I’ve discovered that most leaders are getting the wrong results, or the right results in the wrong ways. When you aim to start achieving “more results faster continually” you are on the right road to achieving the right results.? Be guided by the four ways to make CONTINUALLY happen -- deep expectations, deep relationships, deep processes, deep results -- and you’ll ensure you’ll be getting them in the right ways.??

Copyright ? The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

The author of nearly 40 published books, Brent Filson’s latest two leadership books are: “The Leadership Talk: 7 Days to Motivating People to Achieve Exceptional Results” and “107 Ways to Achieve Great Leadership Talks.” He is the founder of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., which for 40 years has helped thousands of leaders of all ranks and functions in top companies worldwide achieve sustained increases in hard, measured results. He has published some 200 articles on leadership and has been a guest on several hundred radio/tv shows.. His mission is to have leaders replace their traditional presentations with more effective Leadership Talks. www.brentfilson.com and theleadershiptalk.com .?

Besides having lectured about the Leadership Talk at MIT Sloan School of Management, Columbia University, Wake Forest, Villanova, Williams, Middlebury, Filson brought the Leadership Talk to leaders in these organizations: Abbott, Ameritech, Anheuser-Busch, Armstrong World Industries, AT&T, BASF, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, Betz Laboratories, Bose, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Campbell Sales, Canadian Government, CNA, DuPont, Eaton Corporation, Exelon, First Energy, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, GTE, Hartford Steam Boiler, Hershey Foods, Houghton Mifflin, IBM, Meals-on-Wheels, Merck, Miller Brewing Company, NASA, PaineWebber, Polaroid, Price Waterhouse, Roadway Express, Sears Roebuck, Spalding International, Southern Company, The United Nations, Unilever, UPS, Union Carbide, United Dominion Industries, U.S. Steel, Vermont State Police, Warner Lambert — and more