Developing Strategy? Focus On Two Types Of Objectives

You and your team are developing your company’s strategy. Let’s imagine your primary goal is to improve customer retention. To do that, you decide, you need to dramatically improve the customers’ service experience. And to do that, you need to provide service excellence training for your employees. But you can’t do that without a trainer who can design and deliver an effective curriculum. Yet the last two trainers haven’t worked out so well so you decide to hire a search firm to find you the right trainer.

Which means the key to your strategy is to hire a search firm to find you a trainer who will deliver training so your employees deliver better service and your customers won’t leave.

Simple.

Of course I’m joking. Yet that’s what can happen with strategy. Understandably, you want to determine what will lead to the right outcome, what gaps or obstacles stand in your way, and what is at the root of the problem.

Yet the further down the chain you get from the desired result, the longer it will take and the less certain it is you will get there. Many other variables could get in the way.

That’s why you need two types of objectives: Process Objectives and Results Objectives.

Process Objectives address the contributing factors that indirectly lead to the desired outcome. A Process Objective might be: “Develop skilled employees who consistently deliver service excellence.” Ultimately, you can’t reduce customer churn without skilled employees who consistently deliver service excellence. But having skilled employees who consistently deliver service excellence doesn’t guarantee you will reduce customer churn (if, for example, you products don’t deliver what you say they will).

Results Objectives directly address the desired outcome. A Results Objective might be, “Lock in our top 20 customers.” That objective isn’t multiple steps removed from the desired outcome so it doesn’t allow intervening variables to get in the way.

So then why should you want both types of objectives? Why not just have Results Objectives?

Because Results Objectives help you get the result for now, but Process Objectives help you get the result and continue to get the result. Ultimately you want sustained results, not just one-time outcomes. That why both process and results count.

Why And How To Hold Your People Constructively Accountable

There are lots of reasons for not holding your people accountable for poor performance. It’s uncomfortable. It’s emotional. It takes time. It takes energy. The costs of holding your people accountable are significant. So what do you do? You procrastinate, or avoid it altogether.

But what about the other side of the equation? What are the costs of not holding people accountable? The obvious cost is that performance doesn’t improve. But the bigger cost is the message you send to everyone else. That poor performance is okay. That it doesn’t need to change. Worse, that you’re weak. That you’re not committed to winning.

So why should you hold your people accountable? Simple. Because the costs of not doing it are far greater than the costs of doing it.

Okay, then how should you hold people accountable?

First, change your mindset. Think of accountability as positive, not negative. It gives people the opportunity to improve, to achieve. The term, “constructive accountability” captures the spirit of this.

Next, have a roadmap. If you’re not prepared, then don’t be surprised if the conversation does spiral out of control. Here is my 5-step roadmap for constructive accountability:

1. Establish a Common Purpose

Set the tone by identifying your common purpose. Make clear that you and the employee are allies, not adversaries.

2. Confront Reality

Be calm and direct. Outline the current situation as evidenced by what you’ve observed or by some measure of performance. Have a collegial discussion focusing on why things are the way they are.

3. You Take Responsibility

Offer support. Ask what you can do to help the employee succeed. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with everything they ask for (be prepared for excuses). But be open to legitimate things that you as the “coach” should be doing or providing.

4. State Clear Expectations

Be unambiguous about what you expect by when. Encourage them. Let them know you believe in them. And have them confirm that they understand your expectations.

5. Follow-Up Rigorously

The conversation is only step one. Be organized enough to calendar each follow-up meeting. And then disciplined enough to follow-through.