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Read Time: 4 minutes. |
The Effort Trap That's Holding Back Your Team |
Scene One: Your star employee works 60-hour weeks, responds to emails at midnight, never misses a meeting. But their projects consistently miss deadlines and deliverables fall short. |
Scene Two: Your top salesperson works 30 hours a week but consistently lands giant contracts and beats targets by 150%. |
Which one do you reward? |
Most leaders want to say outcomes matter most. But they struggle to look past visible effort. |
Here's the uncomfortable truth: Effort without results is just expensive activity. |
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The Century-Old Habit We Need to Break |
We've been measuring hours for over 100 years. Factory work required physical presence. Knowledge work doesn't. |
But we're still managing like it's 1920: |
Tracking when people arrive and leave Counting emails sent and meetings attended Rewarding "hard workers" regardless of results Promoting based on face time, not impact
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The shift: From time-based to outcome-based thinking. |
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Our Next Free Workshop |
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Stop Reinforcing These Effort-Based Practices |
The "Early Bird" Praise
Stop celebrating who gets to the office first.
Start celebrating who solves problems fastest. |
The "Always Available" Reward
Stop promoting people who answer emails at midnight.
Start promoting people who prevent midnight emergencies. |
The "Meeting Champion" Recognition
Stop praising perfect meeting attendance.
Start praising people who eliminate unnecessary meetings. |
The "Busy = Important" Award
Stop assuming overwhelmed people are your best performers.
Starting realizing they might be your least efficient. |
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Getting Your Team to Buy In |
The Conversation Framework: |
Start with their frustration:
"What's the most frustrating part of your current workload?"
Listen for: "I work really hard but don't feel like I'm making progress" |
Connect to their goals:
"What would you rather be judged on: How many hours you work or the impact you create?"
Most people want to be valued for results, not just effort |
Address the fear:
"I know this feels risky. What if you have a bad week? We'll look at patterns over time, not daily fluctuations. And we'll help you succeed, not catch you failing." |
Make it concrete:
"Instead of tracking your hours, we'll track [specific outcome]. You'll have complete flexibility in how you achieve it." |
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Getting Your Boss to Buy In |
Frame the problem:
"We're losing our best people because they're frustrated carrying underperformers who look busy but don't deliver." |
Show the cost:
"Our top performer in sales works 30 hours a week and generates $2M annually. Our 'hardest worker' puts in 60 hours and generates $800K. We're rewarding the wrong behavior." |
Propose the test:
"Let me try outcome-based management with my team for 90 days. I'll track both effort and results so we can compare." |
Address their concerns: |
"How do we know people are working?"
"We'll know because they're delivering results. If results drop, we investigate. But we focus on output, not input." |
"What about fairness?"
"It's more fair to judge people on their contribution than their hours. High performers shouldn't subsidize low performers." |
"What if people abuse the flexibility?"
"Some might. But our best people will thrive, and that's who we want to keep." |
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Practical Outcome Definitions |
Software Development: |
Deploy feature X by date Y with Z performance criteria Reduce bug reports by 50% this quarter Complete code reviews within 24 hours
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Sales: |
Generate $500K qualified pipeline monthly Close 25% of qualified opportunities Maintain 90%+ customer satisfaction post-sale
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Customer Service: |
Resolve 90% of issues on first contact Maintain 4.5+ satisfaction rating Reduce escalations by 30%
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Make Their Goal SMART-R: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic and Time-bound, but always grounded real Results. |
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Handling the Transition |
Week 1: Set Clear Expectations
"Starting Monday, success means [specific outcome] by [specific date]. How you achieve it is up to you." |
Week 2-4: Support, Don't Monitor
Check in on obstacles, not hours. Ask "What do you need to succeed?" not "How many hours did you work?" |
Month 2: Address Issues Early
If someone's struggling, diagnose why. Skill gap? Unclear expectations? External obstacles? Fix the root cause. |
Month 3: Celebrate Success Stories
Share examples of people who thrived with outcome-based management. Make it the new normal. |
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Common Objections and Responses |
From employees:
"What if I have a bad week?"
"We look at trends, not individual weeks. One bad week doesn't define your performance." |
"This feels like more pressure."
"It's different pressure. Instead of pressure to look busy, it's pressure to be effective. Most people prefer that." |
From leadership:
"How do we ensure quality?"
"Quality is part of the outcome definition. It's not just 'deliver something'—it's 'deliver something that works.'" |
"What about collaboration?"
"Include collaboration in outcome definitions. 'Deliver X while maintaining team satisfaction scores above Y.'" |
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Your Next Move |
This week: |
Pick one person whose effort doesn't match their results Define one clear outcome for them to achieve in the next 30 days Have the conversation: "Let's try measuring success differently" Stop tracking their hours, start tracking their progress
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This month: |
Document what changes (productivity, satisfaction, results) Share success stories with your boss Gradually expand to your full team
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Remember:
This isn't about working less.
It's about working smarter. |
Your customers don't care how hard your team worked.
They care about the value you delivered. |
And so should you. |
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Our Sunday AM posts: |
📌 Build Your Team's AI Early Warning System (Dave on LI)
📌 7 Questions To Shine A Light On Your Blind Spots (Mar on LI)
📌 Level Up Your Leadership With An AI Coach (Dave on X) |
And here are our most popular posts last week:
🔥 How to Develop An AI Career Coach (in 6 Prompts) (Dave on LI)
🔥 How to Run 1:1s That Drive Performance (Dave on X)
🔥 11 Lessons to Shift How Your Think (Mar on LI) |
Our goal is to build a community of 1 million thoughtful, curious leaders. |
You can help us by reposting anything that resonates with you. |
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Thank you for reading. Appreciate you! |
Dave |
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