Page 126 - HBR Leader's Handbook: Make an Impact, Inspire Your Organization, and Get to the Next Level

4.

Focusing on

Results

Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership
is defined by results, not attributes.
—Peter Drucker

Organizations exist to produce collective results that individuals cannot
achieve alone, whether revenues, profits, innovative products, or contribu-
tions to society. As a leader looking to make an impact, you need to take
specific actions to ensure that those results follow from your team’s ongo-
ing efforts.
Unfortunately, many leaders make the mistake of thinking that get-
ting results is simply the by-product of the other leadership practices that
we’ve described. They focus on creating a vision, building a smart strategy,
and getting the right people on board and spend much less time consider-
ing whether those activities are adding up to the highest level of perfor-
mance possible for their organization or team. But to achieve that high