On the other hand, when you have a person or a company that builds a reputation of always delivering results, it’s a whole different story. Just think about the overnight delivery industry many years ago when reliability was good, but not 100 percent. FedEx came along with the tagline, “When it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight!” Not only did they have the tagline, they had the service to back it up. They performed. They consistently produced the results. As their founder, Frederick Smith, said, “We thought that we were selling the transportation of goods; in fact, we were selling peace of mind.” In consequence of their performance, they earned credibility . . . and trust . . . and business. Today, people anticipate that FedEx will deliver on time because they have delivered on time—time and time again.
Many companies, such as The Hartford, use their track record to build trust and court new business. Even advertising references such as “in business since 1925” or “serving you for over 50 years” are designed to communicate a long-term track record that inspires trust. One of the more exciting developments of this new disruptive economy, however, is the fact that a relatively new player such as JetBlue can establish a successful track record quickly. Started in 1999, JetBlue was one of the few U.S. airlines to make a profit during the sharp downturn following 9/11, and is widely recognized for its excellent customer service in “bringing humanity back to air travel.” Similarly, Google, established in 1998, is consistently recognized at or near the very top of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For, and Interbrand’s Best Global Brands, and also as a LinkedIn Top Attractor.
The experience of one company that roared back from being nearly dead powerfully confirms another point—that through results, you can also restore trust faster than you think. In the 1990’s, Apple Computer was on the ropes. They had become a marginal player in the personal computing market, sidelined primarily into educational circles only. When Steve Jobs rejoined the company as CEO, Apple resurrected the founding vision of “building insanely, great products”—and that they did, building products that had simple, elegant design and that simply worked. Delivering results (great products that worked) led to intense customer loyalty, and Apple later became the most valuable company in the world.
Bottom line, whether you’re dealing with restoring trust or establishing it in the first place, it is results that will convert the cynics.
The impact of results on trust plays out in every dimension of life. I have a friend who was going on a trip for a few days and planned to leave his home in the care of his teenage daughter and her friend. He said he felt perfectly comfortable doing this, but confided that he never would have even thought about doing such a thing with his son when he was a teenager. Why? Both his daughter and his son were “good” kids. However, the daughter had a track record of maturity and responsibility; the son did not. The degree of confidence this man had in each child—and thus the degree of trust that he was willing to extend—was a projection of past performance on future results.
“WHAT” AND “HOW”
In considering results, you always need to ask two critical questions: What results am I getting? and How am I getting those results? Most people only ask the what. They have no idea that the answer to the how may be doing them in.
For example, suppose you get your team to hit the numbers, but in the process you create an adversarial win-lose competition between team members, push them until they reach burnout, and take all the credit for your team’s performance. What’s going to be the attitude of those team members the next time you challenge them to hit the numbers? Will it be easier—or harder—for you to get results?
On the other hand, suppose you hit the numbers, but you do it by creating a team spirit of abundance and collaboration. You help team members work together so that everyone succeeds, no one reaches burnout, and the credit is freely shared. What’s going to be their attitude the next time the challenge comes up? What if you can get the same great results—only this time, it’s going to be 30 percent faster and easier?
That’s why you have to ask the question: How am I getting the results? The how can generate huge roadblocks to future results—or it can grease the skids. It’s so much easier to get results the next time around if people trust you . . . if they know you’re going to give credit, to seek mutual benefit, to not place blame. They will want to engage with you, to give you information, to help you because you’ve become credible with them. They trust that you will go for results in a way that will benefit them and everyone involved.
This is why the trust abilities I mentioned in the last chapter are so important. And this is why I define leadership as getting results in a way that inspires trust. I am convinced that with regard to results, the how matters every bit as much as the what. And you see it manifest on every level—individual, relationship, team, organizational, and societal.
In this rapidly changing economy, I’ve seen a lot of companies that have had to change their business model, pare back their cost structure, and lay off employees in order to get sustainable results. Some have created a huge tax in the process—not only with those they let go, but also with those who remained and saw what happened to those who were let go.
I’ve also seen some outstanding companies that have actually built trust in the process. In one instance, I advised a company that was in the process of having to radically undergo a painful transformation to remain relevant and viable. After making many cost-cutting changes, they had reached a point where, in order to regain profitability, they needed to significantly downsize. At that point, they were open, transparent, and honest with their people. Through creating generous severance packages and help with placement, they demonstrated such concern for the people who were leaving that it actually increased confidence and trust with them and also with those who were staying. Everyone realized that they were confronting reality, but they were doing it in a principled way that demonstrated care and concern for all.
Keep in mind that “results” can’t always be measured in dollars and cents. In fact, to ignore the trust tax or dividend in any analysis is to skew the results. The greatest profit may not be in the current transaction, but in the credibility and trust that comes from that transaction that paves the way for even greater results in the future.
DEFINING “RESULTS”
On Wall Street, I learned that “results” are bottom line and the connection between results and credibility is often brutal. A company can get consistently good results, but if they miss one quarter—even by a small amount—it can be as if the prior results weren’t even there. In some ways it’s worse because the organization is now seen as unpredictable.
Off Wall Street, however, I’ve learned that wisdom suggests that we sometimes look at “results” in other ways. As Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton point out in The Balanced Scorecard, there are multiple stakeholders and measures that serve as indicators of the sustainability of financial results. One vital thing to consider is the trust tax or dividend we just discussed. There’s no way to get an accurate picture of the result of anything you do without taking that multiplier or divisor into consideration.
Another thing to consider is your definition of results. It’s possible that you could do everything right—you could have integrity, good intent, and capabilities and you could do everything in a principled way to achieve a good result—but still your business might fail, your spouse might walk out on you, your children might make bad choices, or you might have a hurricane that wipes out your home and everything you’ve worked for. There are some things that are simply not in your control, and there are times when you have to define “results” in a different way than you might have thought:
Yes, my business is going through a rough time. But what am I discovering? What strengths am I gaining? What increased capacity will I have to apply to future efforts?
Yes, my marriage failed. But what is the result? What have I learned? Did I do my best? Have I come through it with my i
ntegrity intact? Am I a better, stronger person because of it? Am I modeling the kind of behavior I want my children to see?
Yes, this disaster has wiped out my home and my business. But what new opportunities do I have as a result? Is there some better way I can now use my talents and abilities to make a difference? What strengths do I have that will enable me to work with others to rebuild?
Even when the observable results appear to be negative, you can still make huge progress in increasing your self-trust and self-confidence by recognizing, defining, and evaluating yourself on results that are not only positive, but are, perhaps, even more important in the long run.
I had the opportunity to coach Little League flag football for nine years, and I saw the impact on young kids whose parents and coaches thought that winning was the only legitimate desired result. In my mind, there were other results that—particularly at that age—were even more important. So I worked with the teams I coached to come up with a list of six objectives:
1. To play hard
2. To have fun
3. To be a good sport
4. To be a good team player
5. To learn something
6. To win
You’ll notice that “to win” was the last objective on the list. There were plenty of good results, plenty of things to celebrate, even if the other team won the game. And those results needed to be celebrated. They were things that would benefit those kids throughout their lives.
On the flip side, you see marriages or families who appear to have it all together—but really don’t. You have businesses or enterprises that seem to be profitable and thriving—but they’re not. You have students who get all As but have no real education. We need to be careful that we don’t become superficial in defining or evaluating results, both in our own lives and in the lives of others. And when we’re in the evaluating role, we also need to exercise wisdom in projecting past performance on future results. Like the standard investment prospectus says, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”
As reported in the Wall Street Journal, at one time, David Sokol, then CEO of MidAmerican Energy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway) had to face Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO—Warren Buffett—with some highly disturbing news. It appeared that the Iowa utility needed to write off some $360 million for a zinc project that had gone south. Sokol braced himself to be fired, but he was totally unprepared for Warren Buffett’s response. “David,” he said, “we all make mistakes. If you can’t make mistakes, you can’t make decisions. I’ve made a lot bigger mistakes myself.” The entire meeting was over in 10 minutes.
In our businesses, relationships, families, and personal lives, there is wisdom in recognizing the capacity of people to learn from their mistakes and to change. There is also wisdom in creating a culture that makes it safe for that to happen. A transparent culture of learning and growing will generally create credibility and trust, even when the immediate results are not the best. The more important desired result is growth, and growth cannot happen without risk. To always make decisions and give opportunity based on past observable performance is to severely limit our ability to achieve great results in the future.
Finally, we need to be aware and appreciate the value of playing a supporting role in achieving results that may be primarily attributed to others. The reality is that no results ever come exclusively from the work of one individual or organization; they represent the efforts of many. You can see it in the world of science, where most new “discoveries” clearly come out of the work, and even sometimes the mistakes, of those of the past. You see it recognized in sports such as basketball, where statisticians measure not only points but also assists, and baseball, where they measure sacrifices as well as runs. Understanding and appreciating the importance of a supportive role in getting results helps us all to more appropriately value our own contributions, as well as the contributions of others.
COMMUNICATING RESULTS
As a teenager, I worked in an organization that had a set of requirements I needed to pass off before I could be considered for promotion. Excited about the work and wanting to do well, I worked hard to prepare ahead of time and passed them off my first day there. As it turned out, my first day there was also the first day for the new boss, and in the midst of all that was going on (and unknown to me), it never reached his attention that I had passed the requirements off.
During the next eight months, no matter how hard I worked, others were advanced, but not me. I wondered about it, but I didn’t say anything. I just tried to work even harder. Finally, this leader said to me, “Stephen, I just can’t understand it. You’re an excellent worker. You’re doing everything else right. I don’t understand why you won’t pass off these requirements so we can put you in a position to manage others.”
Shocked, I exclaimed, “But I did pass them off—the first day I was here!” We were both dismayed to realize all that could have happened if he had known. I had delivered results, but the fact that they were not appropriately recognized affected his perception of me and my credibility, and therefore the level of trust he was willing to extend. However, once those results were recognized—and particularly when they were combined with the results I’d had even in the limited opportunities of the past few months—the whole perception changed. Trust was extended in abundance, and I was able to contribute in far more meaningful ways.
In creating credibility with others, it’s not just the results that count; it’s people’s awareness of the results. Thus, it’s important to be able to appropriately communicate results to others.
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR RESULTS
Given the importance of results in establishing credibility and trust both with ourselves and with others, the question is: How can we improve our results? I believe the three accelerators below are most effective.
1. Take Responsibility for Results
As my father taught me when I was seven years old, a real key to success is in taking responsibility for results—not activities. He told me I was responsible to keep the yard “green” and “clean”; he didn’t tell me I was to water the lawn twice a week, mow it on Saturdays, or pick up the garbage and put it in the can. In fact, he told me I could get the yard “green” and “clean” any way I liked. The point was that when I accounted to him, I had to account for results.
That lesson turned out to be the beginning of a major learning in my life: It’s vital to take responsibility for results—not just activities. This approach unleashes creativity. It helps you understand that if you can’t get results one way, you try another way—you don’t just sit there and whine, “Well, I did what you told me to do!” It’s helped me to release ingenuity in working with coworkers and children alike.
Just consider the contrast:
ACTIVITIES
RESULTS
I called the customer.
I made the sale.
I did the research, I wrote
I got the grant. the report.
I took the class.
I learned how to give an effective presentation.
I stayed on my diet.
I lost 13 pounds.
I tried.
“Do or do not; there is no try.”
—Master Yoda
A results focus is a way of thinking. It’s a different mentality than an activities focus. In early 2018, Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla Motors, sent his personal Tesla roadster into space toward Mars while the booster rockets that got it out of earth’s gravitational pull returned safely for reuse. Was it merely a dramatic publicity stunt? No, Musk’s goal was to demonstrate the results of the reusable rocket technology SpaceX had developed and that would someday be needed to colonize the red planet. In his book, Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters tells the story of how Lee Iacocca, former chairman and CEO of Chrysler, wanted to add a convertible to Chrysler’s line. He writes:
Following standard operating procedures, he [Iacocca] asked his chief engineer to craft a mod
el. The engineer, consistent with industry standards, replied, “Certainly. We can put together a prototype in nine months.” Several bystanders report Iacocca’s furious response: “You just don’t understand. Go find a car and saw the top off the damn thing!”
Iacocca got his prototype in short order, and it resulted in a huge success. Regarding the development of both the Discman and the Chrysler convertible, the focus was clearly not on activities, but on results.
In addition to the benefit of differentiating between results and activities, there’s another positive dimension to taking responsibility for results. As I’ve emphasized over and over in this chapter, accomplishing results will build credibility and trust. But simply taking responsibility for results will also build credibility and trust—sometimes even when the results are not good . . . and sometimes when they were not even your fault.
You may remember the situation in 1982 when seven people in the U.S. died from ingesting Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide. The nation panicked. Some predicted that Johnson & Johnson would never be able to sell another product under that name. But Johnson & Johnson took responsibility for the situation. They immediately alerted consumers to stop using Tylenol until they could determine the extent of the tampering. They recalled approximately 31 million bottles of Tylenol, retailing at more than $100 million. They offered to exchange all Tylenol capsules that had already been purchased for Tylenol tablets, which cost them millions more. They established relations with law enforcement officers on every level to help search for the person who laced the medication and to help prevent further tampering. They put up a reward of $100,000 for the person who committed the crime. When they reintroduced the product back in the market, it had new triple-seal, tamper-resistant packaging. As a result of their actions, they turned what could have been a disaster into a victory in credibility and public trust.
The SPEED of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything Page 16
