Successful people think constantly about the results that are expected of
them. They are constantly writing and planning and setting priorities on their
most important tasks.
Result orientation is critical. In result orientation, you make a list of
everything you have to do before you begin. You organize your list by priority
and value. You select the most important thing you could possibly do and then
you concentrate single-mindedly on accomplishing that one task. You persevere
without diversion or distraction until it is complete.
Intense result orientation goes hand in hand with high productivity, Solutions, and high output. Result orientation is based on your asking and
answering the following five questions, over and over, every minute and hour of
every day:
1. What are my highest-value activities? What are the things
you do that contribute the greatest value to your work? If you are not sure,
make a list of all of your tasks and responsibilities and take them to your
boss. Discuss them with your colleagues and coworkers. You must be absolutely
clear about
the most important results that are expected of you. Remember, the very
worst use of time is to do very well what needs not be done at all.
2. What are my key result areas? What are the results that you
absolutely positively have to get in an excellent fashion to fulfill your
responsibilities and do your job well? There are seldom more than five to seven
key result areas in any job. Your first responsibility is to identify these key
results, to set standards of performance for each result area. You then dedicate
yourself to working every day to meet those standards. What gets measured gets
done. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
3. What can I and only I do that, if done well, will make a real
difference to my company? There is only one answer to this question at
any given time. This is a job that you and only you can do. If you don’t do it,
it won’t get done. No one else can do it for you. But if you do it, and do it
well, it can make a significant contribution to your company and your career.
What is it?
4. What is the most valuable use of my time? This is one of the
most important questions in time management. You should ask and answer this
question every hour of every day. What is the most valuable use of your time
right now? Asking and answering this question is the key to peak performance.
Whatever your answer to this question, be sure that you are working on this
particular task every minute of every hour. Compared with this task, everything
else is a relative waste of time.
5. What is the Solution? Think about the solution to the
problem most of the time, not the problem itself. The more you think and talk
about your problems, and what caused them, the more negative, angry and
pessimistic you become. But when you think and talk about the solutions, you
become positive, creative and optimistic. Life is a continuous succession of
problems. They never end. They come in like the waves of the ocean, one after
another. In addition, if you are living a normal, busy life today, you will
probably have a CRISIS of some kind every two or three months. The only thing
that really matters is how effectively you respond when things go wrong.
Your ability to solve problems largely determines your success and your
income. This ability determines how far you go and how high you rise in life.
Highly successful people solve big problems. Unsuccessful people solve little
problems or no problems at all. And the bigger and more expensive the problems
you solve, the larger and more important are the problems you will be given to
solve.
The key to becoming an excellent problem solver is to think and talk about
the possible solutions most of the time. Whenever something goes wrong, resist
the temptation to become angry, blame others, or make excuses. Instead ask
questions like: What’s the solution? What do we do now? What is the next step?
How do we solve this problem? How do we limit the damage? How can we prevent
this from happening again? Where do we go from here?
In the final analysis, getting results is everything. The quality and
quantity of your results determine the quality and quantity of your rewards.
