And, in this week’s special edition of YourSuccessMatters, that’s precisely what we focus on—helping you get results for customers, bosses and coworkers. Each of the seven posts covers an aspect of turning activity into outcomes.

In the opening post, you’ll read why working hard isn’t the same as getting work done. It’s a lesson one of our own employees learned from an Army general.

Then, we’ll start at the beginning of getting results–with goal setting. SMART goal setting, that is!

And, who among us has just one iron in the fire? You’ll learn how General Eisenhower dealt with competing priorities.

Can diverse thinking help you solve problems and get results? Learn how and why in this interesting take on “diversity.”

Ever get distracted when pursuing results? Learn how Olympic champions stay focused.

We continue our series on career advice and see why it’s important to focus on getting the right results.

And finally, we conclude with five ways you can improve your getting results score!

Thanks for your comments and feedback.

Here’s to getting results!

A company manager tells of her experience with a high-powered general, a base commander in Germany. “He was one of the most inspirational leaders I’ve ever worked for,” she recalled.

One day she, her husband and the general were discussing a number of military staffers. “I mentioned a particular sergeant’s name and commented that, despite some shortcomings, he was a very hard worker.”

She told us she’ll never forget the general’s calm, but firm, admonition. “Pat,” he said, “never confuse hard work with results.”

We don’t mean to imply that hard work isn’t important, but it’s just not an accurate predictor of getting results. Results-oriented people have a bias for action and are often seen as “drivers” in the organization. They are likely to challenge the status quo without procrastinating and more likely to seize the opportunities at hand.

Drivers have to be careful, however, to keep the bigger picture in mind. In other words, they may sometimes be so tactical and so focused on the task at hand that they fail to think strategically.

The downside of getting results (if there really is one) is that people who deliver what they promise are usually the same ones the company seeks out for the next challenge.

This skill can be summed up this way: Results-oriented people do what they say they’re going to do. No “Talk-Do Gap” here! (See “Dave and the Talk-Do Gap” here.)

If you start SMART, you’ll greatly increase your chances of ending smartly.

General and later President Dwight D. Eisenhower often faced this challenge and battled it using what is called the Eisenhower Method. Basically, Eisenhower is suggesting that we distinguish the “urgent” and “important” activities from those that are neither urgent nor important.

The subtlety is that we are often fooled into thinking that whatever is urgent is worth taking our minds off your most important goals. Eisenhower firmly believed that “What’s important is seldom urgent, and what’s urgent is seldom important.” Yes, it’s a generalization, but it’s more true than not.

The key to getting results if you’re managing multiple projects is to keep those around you (customers, bosses, coworkers) informed if you’re not able to meet a deadline. Getting results late is often seen as poor project management. It makes you look bad.

By the way, it’s okay to say “no” if you have too much on your plate. Some of us believe that this will damage a relationship. Not necessarily so. If it does hurt a relationship, that relationship was probably not on the best footing to begin with. But more importantly, if saying “yes” results in poor performance (not getting results), you’ll do more to hurt the relationship than saying “no” ever would have done.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Unfortunately, this tends to run counter to our natural instincts to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. After all, it’s easier that way, isn’t it?

Actually, it’s not.

People who have similar backgrounds and experiences—especially those who’ve worked together for some time—tend to quickly converge on solutions because they see things in much the same way.

However, diversity of thought—achieved, in part, by bringing people together with varied backgrounds and points of view—expands the potential pool of solutions available to you. A 2006 study by Tufts University proved that diverse groups studied problems more effectively, came to better conclusions and generally outperformed those with little diversity.

But how can this help you get results? By giving you more ways to solve problems as they emerge.

Nothing makes the case for diversity in problem solving better than the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission in 1970. Mission commander Gene Kranz, engineers and crew faced myriad challenges after an explosion in the spacecraft crippled systems and threatened disaster. Among their problems was the crew’s dwindling supply of oxygen. This required fitting square filters into round holes. It was a result upon which returning the crew to earth would pivot. Kranz assembled a team of engineers, some of whom had no experience with this aspect of the spacecraft, to devise a solution.

So when it comes to solving problems to get results, think diversity.

[Note: You can watch the video of this sequence in the Apollo 13 movie here.]

Claude-Adrien Helvetius, Swiss-French tax collector, philanthropist and philosopher

The story is told about Charlie Jones, the late sportscaster who was less than thrilled with his assignment to cover rowing, canoeing and kayaking events at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta.  Besides starting at 7 a.m., the venues were an hour outside Atlanta.

Despite its downsides, covering the events turned into some of the most enjoyable and memorable times in his career because he got the chance to get inside the heads of the athletes, learning how they thought and trained. Jones would ask them what they’d do if they encountered strong winds, driving rain or breaking equipment. The response was: “That’s outside my boat.”

It was an answer repeated many, many times to Jones. He realized that the Olympic athletes had focus and were only interested in what they could control—what was going on inside their boat.

The getting results lesson may be as simple as staying inside our mental boats rather than losing focus and jumping into a sea of distractions only to find your team mates yelling, “Man overboard!”

Focus: It’s a real life saver!

In the third chapter of “The Adventures of Johnny Bunko,” author Daniel Pink reveals a sizeable piece of career advice: Focus on making others successful.

Johnny Bunko, the book’s hero, moves into a new job in the marketing department where he and his teammates are charged with winning a new project for the company. 

He’s welcomed quite openly. “It never hurts to throw another body at a problem,” one marketing pro says. But he gets off to a bad start by taking the previous chapter’s advice too literally.

Johnny learned how focusing on your strengths (the things you’re good at and that give you energy and satisfaction) and not your weaknesses can bring career satisfaction.  Unfortunately, when Dave, his teammate, wants him to help brainstorm ideas, Johnny says he’d prefer to make drawings in his sketchbook. This chapter’s lesson, “It’s not about you,” brings home the point that you can’t simply exercise your strengths just to use them. 

Then, he gets some counsel that’s relevant to all of us. It’s about:

• Customers and clients not self-actualizing
• Winning new work for the company
• Improving the lives of others
• Solving problems for others
• Giving customers something they don’t know they are missing
• Making team members look good

Pink emphasizes that, if we focus on making others successful, we’ll be successful, too. It’s wisdom that can seem somewhat counterintuitive—especially to those of us who—sometimes jokingly, sometimes not—believe that it’s “all about me.”

It’s actually about us because our success matters!

1. Get clear on your priorities. Take a look at your current priorities. Are they clear and do you know which ones are most important? What are the top five?
2. Don’t overthink it. Do you over-analyze, thinking about something for a long time before getting started? Results oriented people are more likely to take into account what is known and chart a course that’s reasonable and prudent before every “i” is dotted and every “t” is crossed. Then, when presented with additional data, they may adjust their approach. The key here is that the risk is reasonable and prudent, not stupid and foolhardy.
3. Take action. Is the perfection monkey on your back? This can be a difficult one because perfectionism is a positive trait for most. Sometimes perfectionism can be a way to protect ourselves from criticism or an excuse for not seizing opportunities. Recognizing this can help you move forward.
4. Be thorough. The flip side of the perfection monkey is the lack of attention to detail. One manager called it “incomplete staff work” suggesting that a project was not thoroughly understood, thought through or executed. Clear expectations from the onset and attention to fully meeting them can help.
5. Be clear with others. If you need to get results through the efforts of others, do you set clear expectations and are they understood? If your needs change, do you let others know sooner rather than later? Always remember to acknowledge the results of others. Feedback is the breakfast of champions!

Said another way: We’re usually smart and persistent enough to tackle challenges others give us, but less effective at identifying and removing barriers we self-impose.  That’s due, in part, to the inability to see our own barriers. And, even if we do, we find them difficult to remove or work around.

Barriers can manifest themselves in many ways. Frequently, they show up as a lack of career progress in the form of job dissatisfaction, lack of upward mobility, feeling trapped and having no options. Even though the obvious questions to ask in this situation are “How do I get to the top?” or “How can I be successful in my career?” the better question is, “Am I reaching my potential?” This means taking a very personal look at how you define success and then finding your path to get there.

There are many ways to find answers to the “potential question,” but a very revealing one may be this: If you had 10 million dollars, what would you be doing? If the answer is, “What I’m doing now,” congratulations! If the answer is something entirely different, the new question is, “And why is that?”

Regardless of your answer, another type of barrier to achieving your potential lies in the assumptions you make about how to be successful. Here are three serious “stallers” that deserve your attention:

Believing that mentors, coaches and bosses are the pathway to achieving career objectives. Truth is they’re not and this passive approach is likely to derail you at some point. They can help, but ultimately, you’ve got to take charge, manage your career, and act accordingly. If you’re not the most important person interested in your success, you should be.

Believing in and following conventional wisdom. Your attributes, skills, upbringing, and career path are uniquely yours. Avoid the temptation to follow peer pressure and popular opinion about what works and doesn’t. Be discerning. Ask yourself, “Does this apply to me?” It might. Then, again, it might not. Understand your own uniqueness and convictions. Then, be courageous enough to act on them.

Failing to learn (from failure, especially). It’s rare that you’ll go through your career without encountering setbacks. The key is how you learn from them. Not every failure will be fair, and you may not be fully responsible for it, but you participated in it somehow. Don’t deny, but learn. And, always focus on what you can control.

Ultimately, we all have more potential than know. The goal is to use as much as we can!

What hurdles to achieving your potential are the most difficult to overcome? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

If you’re a manager, these questions help you evaluate a person’s ability to do a job. And, if you’re an employee, these are good questions to think through and to sharpen your answers. It pays to be prepared!

…adapted from Inc., Magazine