You can agree with this, or you can say that there are no levels at all. But whatever you might think, you still want goals to be achieved and business results to be delivered. Months pass, and eventually years, pacing and expenses grow, but are you getting the results you actually want?

Aren’t you about to collapse from fatigue and powerlessness?

Perhaps it’s time to change something in your actions so that the result will be different?

Is it really worth continuing to stubbornly bash your head against a “wall”? Maybe you need to stop, listen, look, and think—and a second wind will open up, the necessary vision will form, and, of course, optimal solutions will be found. And suddenly, it will turn out that there was no “wall” at all; there was simply a lack of understanding of:

• how to achieve business results;
• how to delegate tasks;
• how to conduct negotiations;
• how to manage staff;
• how to act effectively.

The most interesting part is that this transition will have to be made anyway. The only question is, how will you make it?

What will you have to go through—losses and disappointment, or search and learning?

The choice is yours, but remember one thing: these are two entirely different paths in terms of duration, essence, emotional toll, financial investment, and, of course, achievements.

Do you want a business result? Make the transition to a new level consciously and purposefully, learn what is necessary, and new horizons will open up. Transitioning to another level has its own “entry point.” The “entry point” is the decision to get a different result. It is from this decision that the search for working tools and the delegation of current tasks begins. Up until this point, everything else is just moving blindly, and it is exactly this kind of movement that most people suffer from. In reality, everything is much simpler:

Decision — Action (Movement) — Result

So, those who are constantly “on the road,” or those whose results are merely illusions, are simply acting blindly. They just haven’t made the decision to achieve it yet…

After all, to achieve something means to determine the possible ways of “approaching” the desired outcome and choosing the most optimal action. This is working on a problem where the answer is the required result. Any problem can be solved, but not every problem is one you can commit to (i.e., take on the responsibility to solve).

The hardest part lies exactly in formulating the task correctly. It is from the formulation of the task that a series of decisions emerges, based on which a person acts. But if the initial conditions are set incorrectly, then all subsequent actions are unlikely to lead to the desired result. Let’s look at how this happens.

Let’s touch upon the issue of personnel. How does a manager’s task most often sound?

— How do I motivate the staff?

And immediately, a huge number of proposals appear, colorfully talking about motivation. But can they really solve this issue?

After all, an underperforming staff is a symptom, not the cause. First and foremost, this symptom indicates that something is organized incorrectly within the system, since there is an opportunity to work “without breaking a sweat.” If the boss just “makes some noise” and then does everything themselves or simply allows deadlines to be pushed back… It is very difficult to describe all the variations on this theme, but one thing is certain: if this is happening, it means that, somehow, permission was granted for it.

Staff are hired employees who take on work obligations in exchange for a salary. But most often, they receive the money while fulfilling their obligations incompletely or far too slowly.

What is actually happening?

In reality, employees are simply using an available opportunity not to do the work, or to do it slowly. And most importantly, this opportunity was handed to them by the management itself (or the entrepreneur, if it’s a small company).

The very formulation of the question “How do I motivate the staff?” is just another waste of time and money, leading nowhere. After all, it is very hard to find external motivators if internal ones are not engaged.

— But who should engage them?

The answer is clear—the leader or the manager. If you think about the meaning of management, it is quite simple: you need to guide and initiate the work process. You must manage the staff so that they work, not relax. You must assign tasks correctly so that the employee takes responsibility and understands exactly what they need to deliver and by what deadline. You need to eliminate the very possibility of doing nothing, and it is the direct duty of management to properly load the employee with work. All of this constitutes the ability to manage effectively and the capacity to be a true leader.

Therefore, the request needs to be reframed:

— What does a manager (entrepreneur) need to learn in order to manage staff effectively and set work tasks correctly?

This is a completely different approach and requires working with the manager on a specific goal. Such tasks are solved quite quickly and successfully in coaching. Because coaching is an individual approach and a transition to a new level of actions and skills. A level where you will no longer say, “It’s them who work poorly.” Instead, you will clearly see what exactly isn’t working for you and understand what you still need to learn.

If you want a business result—change yourself and learn to set tasks correctly.

Olena Boiko — a business coach who creates results

+38 099 23 850 33