Leadership For Deep Results: Without Them Are You Wasting Your Leadership And Your Life? (Part One)

I've challenged all leaders I have worked with during the past two decades to achieve "more results faster continually."

They can get on track to start achieving such results not by working harder and longer but by slowing down and using Leadership Talks on a daily basis.

However, I also tell them that getting on the more-results-faster-continually track is not an end but a beginning. They must then begin focusing not just on the quantity and speed of results but the kind of results they aim to achieve.

There are roughly two kinds of results, standard results and deep results. Most leaders understand standard results but fail to come to grips with deep results. In fact, these leaders go through their entire careers getting the former, but they don't have a clue about the latter. Of course, standard results are necessary. But in the long run, they are far less important than deep results.

We know what standard results are. They are the results we must get in our jobs, such as: speed, productivity, operations efficiencies, sales closes, sales leads, sales to new customers, failure prevention, health and safety advancements, quality, training, quality control, logistics efficiencies, marketing targets, new revenue streams, sales erosion, price calibrations, cost reductions, demand flow activities and technologies, inventory turns, cycle time reductions, materials and parts management, etc.

Whereas achieving standard results enables us to do a better job and have a better career, deep results are different. Deep results are about being better leaders. Of course, being a better leader will have a positive impact on your job and your career. But there is something else involved: Being a better leader means being a better person. Who we are as a leader and who we are as a person should be the same thing. If they're not, we diminish both our leadership and the person we are.

Look at it this way: Standard results are about "doing"; deep results are about "being". Our most important achievements as leaders are not just what we achieve but who we become in that achieving.

For instance, if we don't get standard results in our job, we fail in that job or at least in that particular aspect of the job.

But in the realm of deep results, such failure might lead to success if in that failure, we find a better way to lead, a better way to be better.

Here are some ways deep results differ from standard results.

--Deep results emerge over longer periods of time.

--Deep results encompass wider circles outside your job, usually impacting your family, friends, and relatives.

--Deep results are often not conventionally successful results. They can come in the guise of failure.

--Deep results can't be quantified. They're usually a quality of living or being.

--Deep results are often not immediately apparent. Usually, you become aware of them after they appear and sometimes long after they appear.

--Deep results are formed in your inner life and the choices you make over the things you control, your opinions, aspirations, and desires.

--Deep results shape, and are shaped by, character.

How does one go about getting deep results? There are many paths up this mountain. But one path is straight and steep and clear. In Part Two, I'll show you that path and provide examples of deep results in action.

2005 © The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in newsletters and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box and live web site link. Email notice of intent to publish is appreciated but not required: mail to: brent@actionleadership.com

The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. ? and for more than 20 years has been helping leaders of top companies worldwide get audacious results. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get a free white paper: "49 Ways To Turn Action Into Results," at http://www.actionleadership.com

---

Three Growth Guidelines from Stephen Covey

I have been looking for answers to what it takes... Read More

Partnership: Choose It or Lose It

Charlotte decides to do good. Charlotte is a highly motivated... Read More

Managing Monsters in Meetings - Part 6, Deadlocked Discussions

Although a meeting is a vehicle for resolving differences, it... Read More

Abe Lincoln: An Extraordinary Leader

Perhaps noted as one of the greatest United States presidents... Read More

Charismatic Leadership

What motivates people to work and to achieve? What circumstances... Read More

The Leader Within

Each and every one of you has hidden deep inside... Read More

The Leadership Strategy: An Unmined Comstock Lode of Results

During the Second World War, Winston Churchill had a framed... Read More

Extraordinary People in Mediocre Times

My grandfather used to speak of the days when people... Read More

5 Steps on How to Set and Achieve Your Goals

Which one is a goal? I will lose 15... Read More

Leadership Like Water-Water Canoeing

Although world business is undergoing historic changes, the prevailing view... Read More

Are You a Good Manager or a Great Leader?

Your word is your truth - Know that when you... Read More

Ten Steps To Effective Leadership

Many people end up in a supervisory position or SOHO... Read More

Introduction to the The Enneagram as a Leadership Tool

The Enneagram is a fascinating tool of nine orientations that... Read More

Dont Be a Complainer

Complaining. There's room for legitimate complaining, but if you let... Read More

Recommended Books on Leadership and Team Building

The single most important thing a leader can do is... Read More

7 Excellent Ways To Improve Your Leadership Skills!

Did you know that there are 7 really effective yet... Read More

Reinventing Failure: Designing Success

I am fascinated by problems. I like to think of... Read More

What Kind of Leader Are You?

You are a leader if someone is following you. This... Read More

3 Cs Leaders Must Communicate!

"Of every noble work the silent part is best, Of... Read More

Steps to Becoming a Good Leader

STEPS TO BECOMING A GOOD LEADER: 1. Develop a master... Read More

The Qualities of Skillful Leadership

If you want to be a leader who attracts quality... Read More

Mr. Shoaffs Simple Strategies to Success

(Excerpted from the Jim Rohn Sampler single CD)My first mentor,... Read More

3 Es For Leaders - Engage, Empower, Encourage!

"Enflamed with the study of learning and the admiration of... Read More

Character -- Why It Matters In Leaders

"Character is much easier kept than recovered." -Thomas Paine"The best... Read More

Embracing Adversity for Achievement

"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll... Read More

Get Angry And Then Get Results

Leadership is not about winning a popularity contest, it's about... Read More

5 Human Capital Asset Enrichment Strategies for Leaders!

Here's a really simple way to think about the ins... Read More

The Sink Or Swim Approach To Leadership

Looking around in most corporate environments today you'll find mission,... Read More

Three Factors Of Leadership Motivation

Leaders do nothing more important than get results. But you... Read More

Leadership A Perspective From Tao

Tao Te Ching said to be written by Lao Tzu... Read More

Learn How to Lead People

"Who rules or guides or inspires others"Having excellent guide skills... Read More

Two Leadership Traps: How To Avoid Them and How To Get Out Of Them (Part 2)

Here's how to get out of, or avoid, the "I... Read More

Lead People...Manage Things

Master The Five Key Facets of High Performance LeadershipMany people... Read More