The 2 Results of High Performing Leaders

By David Spader & Dr. Michael O’Connor

When you search “leadership” in Google you will get millions of "hits". Anyone can choose to write articles, blogs or books with the claim they will enlighten or educate the rest of us. Opinions abound about the best leadership approach, style, personality and habits. How can we sort through all these messages to find those select few that are valuable and worth our time? A good place to start is to identify those specific key outcomes that mark higher-performing leaders. Our experience in working with leaders and managers for more than 50 years has taught us that a leader’s approach must produce two outcomes:

1. Success

2. Satisfaction

In higher-performing companies, these outcomes are not separate but intertwined. Here is a look at each outcome to better understand how we can produce them as an effective leader.

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SUCCESS

The first outcome associated with an effective leader is success. Success is measured in terms of the results produced. While results might be assumed to be measured in dollars and cents, more effective leaders understand that results are important in both the financial and human objectives the organization needs to accomplish for stability and growth.

The harder-side, financial types of objectives are measured in terms of profitability, efficiencies, sales growth, etc. The softer-side, people-related objectives include competencies, productivity, repeat business, etc. An effective leader delivers results across this wide spectrum of both financial and human areas in order to keep their company competitive and thriving in the rapidly changing and evolving marketplace.

Here are a few questions to help you determine whether you are a leader that delivers success:

Ways to Measure Success By Stakeholder Group

Customers

• Do our customers view us as more competent and capable than our competitors?

Employees

• Are our employees highly productive and do they continue to get better?

Owners

• Is our return on investment consistently strong during both positive and negative market conditions?

Community

• Do we positively contribute to the ongoing success of our community?

Business Partners

• Do our business partners (manufacturers, vendors and others) view us as a reliable and consistent performer?

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SATISFACTION

The second outcome effective leaders deliver is satisfaction for its key stakeholder groups. By contrast with success, satisfaction is sometimes assumed to apply to the softer, people aspects of the business. However, as with success, satisfaction is a key outcome on both the people and financial sides of a business.

Economic satisfaction can be measured in terms of customer satisfaction, solid business exit strategies, sound leadership succession plans, etc. On the people side of the business, satisfaction may be measured in terms of engagement, commitment, loyalty, high morale and dedication. Here are a few questions to help you determine whether you are a leader that delivers satisfaction:

Ways to Measure Satisfaction By Stakeholder Group

Customers

• Are our customer relationships characterized by extremely high satisfaction, loyalty, repeat business and trust that our competitors struggle to match?

Employees

• Do our employees demonstrate passion, commitment, loyalty and personal satisfaction? Do they enjoy coming to work every day?

Owners

• Do our owners model the behaviors and desired culture that strengthens our business? Do our owners have clear strategies for future satisfaction personally and for the organization?

Community

• Are we actively engaged in significant activities that strengthen our community while also providing employee satisfaction?

Business Partners

• Do our business partners view us as committed to their success as well as ours?

Our experience (and the mass of leadership advice available) indicates that most organizations and leadership teams don’t consistently deliver both success and satisfaction. Leaders of organizations are typically better at one than the other, with too many being mediocre at both!

A business we recently worked with had been financially successful for several years. However, their leadership team expressed exasperation, despair and frustration. They weren’t finding meaning in their work, and this lack of satisfaction was obvious from their comment: “It just isn’t fun anymore.” Their organization was experiencing success without satisfaction. Over the longer term, without change their financial success is likely to reflect this lack of attention to these two critical, intertwined outcomes.

Compare that business to another in which the employees, leadership team and customers are quite happy and satisfied, even though their business stability is at risk because of lack of financial success. Most of their employees enjoy going to work and feel a deep commitment to both their company and their customers, but the company may go out of business if the level of success is not improved. If that happens, of course, without greater success, this pattern of satisfaction will crash.

The clearest path to sustained long-term organizational performance is characterized by leaders that deliver both success and satisfaction. The combination of these two key leadership outcomes may be your missing link.