Teaching Results Focus

Over the decades, I have worked with many focused leaders and teams. You know these teams when you are among them – they have fun, but they never lose sight of their targets and the actions required to reach them.

I have also worked with unfocused leaders and teams. Almost everybody in these companies is caught up in ‘process’. These are the people who are most likely to tell you that they are busy, but they seldom show results for all this busyness. The work, not results, becomes the focus.

The person responsible for instilling a results focus in the team is the leader – unfocused leader, unfocused team.

Goals and Plans

Without clear goals and plans, how can you possibly know what your targets should be? Plucking targets out of thin air almost guarantees that your team will not reach those targets.

• What are your goals and how much profit per month do you need to achieve those goals?
• How many sales per month do you need to reach that profit?
• How many listings per month do you need to reach those sales?
• What marketing will you deliver in the coming month and how many listings will it yield?
• What personal prospecting levels do you expect from each team member, and how many listings will that prospecting yield?

I am sure you get the idea – your targets are derived from your profit goals.

Share the plan

Your plan should be shared with the team. These are the company’s goals.

The team should know what you expect to achieve and you should clearly set expectations in actions and performance for each team member to ensure that the company’s goals are achieved.

Talk about the company goals

Keep mentioning the company’s goals and share with the team how the company is progressing toward them. Talk about the company’s goals often. It is essential that you help each team member set his or her own goals – goal setters are more focused on results than those without goals.

Point out drifting behaviour

Whenever you detect a salesperson working on activity that will not lead to a listing or sale, point it out to the salesperson. Constantly ask the question, “Is what you are doing now going to lead to a listing or a sale?”

If the team hears you talking about results, and if the team see YOU focused on results, this behaviour will gradually be adopted by the team.

There will always be individuals who do not like the results-focused environment, saying that there is too much pressure. You might as well face up to this fact: winning doesn’t suit everybody.

Does it suit you? If so, set goals, plan, focus, and act. Then, teach these habits to your team.