PRODUCING RESULTS

Life is made up of seasons and cycles – seasons and cycles of opportunities. Ideally, everybody should be either gainfully employed or running a lucrative business. But as we all know, the ideal is never the case. Even in buoyant economies, some are unemployed, and businesses fail. This is because the workplace and the business environment of today are performance-driven and results-oriented. There’s no more room for the nice guy with good intentions. To excel, you have to become adept at turning good intentions into expected results. What guarantees your profitable involvement in today’s marketplace is VALUE. All things being equal, people naturally patronize the person or the organization that gives them the best value.

Now every human is very valuable; according to Jesus, one human is more valuable than the wealth of the whole world put together. But perception they say, is greater than reality. The degree to which you repeatedly produce expected results is the degree to which you will be perceived as valuable by others. The key word here is “perception”.

To start with, use the following questions to measure how valuable you are likely to be perceived at work, in relationships, or business:

#1. What percentage of our overall results am I personally responsible for?

#2. What is my unique contribution to the progress of this team, organization, or relationship? What can I do better than most of my colleagues?

#3. On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 1 being the lowest), How difficult is it to replace me?

If you answer these questions honestly, you can easily measure how valuable you are likely to be perceived by others. To ensure objectivity, you can ask a friend or colleague or yours to answer these questions for you.

What I have discovered is that winners think differently, and operate by a set of principles that losers fail to imbibe. But the good news is that winners are made, not born; and nobody was designed to fail. Therefore, you can improve your chances of success and exceptional productivity, by imbibing the same principles that make winners what they are.

First, you have to take responsibility for your success. Resolve to do whatever it takes to become the best version of yourself. Secondly, invest in knowledge. Until you know better, you cannot do better. Invest in books, audio & video teachings, training programs, and seminars.  Thirdly, you have to intentionally broker relationships with top performers in your field. Find a way to serve them and then ask them questions whenever you are with them. Successful people love to share, once they sense a genuine quest in you. Finally, practice what you know with discipline. There’s more to producing results than what we’ve considered here, but these ideas will set you in the right direction.