Focusing on outcomes is a mindset and practice that can have a tremendous positive impact on your team’s morale and engagement and the results that they can achieve.
When I focus on outcomes, I am purposeful with my language, attitude and actions to help keep my team focused on the outcomes we want to achieve. We stay focused on desired results.
Unfortunately, many managers focus on problems. They focus on the issues and roadblocks, and anything that might go wrong. This is the default mode for most people. It's human nature to focus on problems and it can have a disastrous effect on engagement, creativity and teamwork
What does a focus on problems looks like?
A while back, there was a manager whose team was selected to pilot a new remote work program. The program was a big change for her organization and the manager knew that senior leadership was paying close attention to the results of the pilot. When she called her team together to explain the pilot it went something like this:
"OK gang, we're taking part in a remote work pilot. Senior management will be watching very closely. So, let me tell you what will NOT happen. It will not be a free-for-all. It will not be work whenever you want to. If I can't get a hold of you, there will be hell to pay. If I hear that you miss any of your deliverables, I’m writing you up. If I get any complaints at all..."
She went on like that for the entire meeting. As you can imagine, her team was terrified. The first question they asked was, "how can we opt out?"
Clearly, this manager focused on the potential problems, on what she didn't want. Her language and demeanor reflected as much, and it had a completely demoralizing effect on her team.
When you focus on problems, you're focusing on what you don't want, what you're trying to avoid. When you focus on outcomes, you're focusing on what you want to achieve, what you are being drawn to.
Why should we focus on outcomes?
Focusing on problems leads to anxiety and disengagement. Focusing on outcomes leads to excitement, enablement and engagement.
Focus on problems leads to reactive behavior. You hear questions like:
How did this happen?
Why did you do that?
Whose fault is it?
Focus on outcomes leads to creative behavior. You hear questions like:
How can we accomplish this?
What do we need to make this happen?
What else could we do?
Focus on problems is limiting. What do you do when you encounter problems? You slow down; you pump the brakes and proceed with caution. Focus on outcomes is liberating. Outcome focus adds energy to the team and encourages innovation. It speeds up progress.
How do we move from focusing on problems to focusing on outcomes?
The first step is awareness. Develop the ability to pause and catch yourself in problem focus mode.
Then be mindful about the language you use. You can flip or reframe any problem-focused statement to an outcome-focus instead. What you'll notice is that outcome-focused statements are usually questions. This helps to encourage engagement and creative thinking among the team.
Instead of saying, "we don't have enough resources," ask, "how can we get the resources we need?"
Instead of saying, "we'll never make this deadline," ask, "what can we accomplish by the target date," and, "how could we speed up our efforts?"
Instead of saying, "Senior management will never go for this," ask, "what can we do to secure senior management's support?"
So, what might that manager's meeting have sounded like if she had focused on outcomes instead of on problems? It might have sounded something like this:
"OK gang, we’re taking part in a remote work pilot. This could have a tremendous impact on work-life balance across the organization and senior leadership will watch this closely, so I want to make sure we do this right. It will be important that we communicate early and often so we can tweak things as we go along. So, what sort of ideas do you have to make sure this is successful? What do we need to pay attention to, to make sure we maximize the benefit for both us and the organization?"
Can you see how this differs from the problem focus? It invites engagement and the sharing of ideas and that leads to higher morale and a better outcome for your team.
I invite you to try it. Find opportunities where you can flip from focusing on problems to focusing on outcomes. Let me know how it goes, or any other thoughts you have about this topic in the comments below.
For more information about developing an outcome focus, check out the book, The Power of TED* (The Empowerment Dynamic) by David Emerald.
In the next post we'll look at agreements vs. expectations.
Image, Focus by Dani Ihtatho used under CC license.
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