Delivering Results Is Not Enough

Why are you not getting the recognition you deserve?

You are delivering projects on time.

Your systems and processes are running smoothly.

What gives?

Delivering results just isn’t enough. It’s not even close.

Today, I’ll show you why even stellar results can fall flat, and more importantly, how to ensure your achievements translate into real impact and career growth.

The Results Trap

Picture this: You’ve just wrapped up a major project. The metrics look great. The deliverables are in. But somehow, the excitement you expected from leadership just... isn’t there.

What went wrong?

I’ve discovered that most leaders with this problem fall into one of four Results Traps:

1. Chasing the Wrong Thing

2. Missing the Strategic Story

3. Neglecting the Infrastructure

4. Forgetting the Future

Let’s break each of these down and turn them into your advantage...

Trap #1: Chasing the Wrong Thing

“Our numbers are up 40% this quarter!”

Sounds impressive, right? But here’s the catch — not all metrics are created equal. Some numbers look great in a spreadsheet but mean nothing to the business.

It takes skill to hit targets. It takes more skill to choose the right targets to hit.

Here’s what matters:

• Measure what matters — Connect metrics directly to business value. Even technical metrics about your systems. If you can’t clearly articulate the customer or other business impact, nobody will care about it (and rightly so).

• Smart sequencing — Get some short-term wins AND align them long-term improvements. There should be a (good) reason why you’re doing things in the order you are. Earlier things should de-risk later things, build new capabilities and generally accelerate progress going forward.

• Get your groundwork right — This is so important I won’t let a project start without a crisp and well justified plan for measurement that includes how we are going to establish a baseline before we start changing things.

Trap #2: Missing the Strategic Story

You can deliver perfect results and still miss the mark if you can’t connect them to the bigger picture.

This isn’t just about communication — it’s about understanding and positioning.

Think of your results like puzzle pieces. Even a perfect piece has no impact until you show how it fits into the larger image.

Three questions to ask before every major initiative:

• Work in the Main Stream — How does this support our larger strategy? How does it enable or directly deliver on goals for leaders above you?

• Be an Impact Amplifier — What future opportunities does this unlock? New and better ways of doing existing things? New markets or market segments? New revenue opportunities? Dramatic cost savings or risk reduction?

• Recruit the Right Support — Who will even notice this? Who needs to understand this? Who will champion it? When achieved, whose “accomplishments” list will include it as an item? Who will say “hell, yeah” and publicly appreciate the accomplishment?

Trap #3: The Hero’s Journey to Nowhere

Good intentions don’t scale.

You can achieve amazing results through heroic effort. Working late. Fighting fires. Being the person or team who always saves the day. Some leaders build their whole reputation on being the hero.

But there’s a problem: Heroes eventually burn out. Or worse — they build teams that can’t function without them.

True leadership isn’t about diving saves. It’s about building systems that create predictable success and prevent entire classes of failure:

• Clear processes that others can follow

• Documented decisions and their context and rationale

• Built-in quality checks with “teeth”

• Don’t fail the same way twice — Deep dives on failures and root cause resolution

Think about it this way: If you had to take a month off tomorrow, would your team keep delivering great results? If not, you might be stuck in the hero trap.

Trap #4: Forgetting the Future

The most dangerous trap? Treating results as endpoints rather than waypoints.

Every achievement should open doors to new opportunities. Too often leaders plant their flag on a victory and move on to the next item on the list.

Imagine executives above you hearing the project completed. Are they just going to be relieved? Or are they going to be excited about the huge unlock for many other things that are now possible?

Get ready to repeat yourself. Because that story of what the “unlock” is… needs to be told over and over from before the project starts until long after it completes. Don’t do that and your team will suffer under-appreciation.

Ask yourself:

• What does this success enable us to do next?

• What capabilities have we built?

• Where can we apply these learnings?

Putting It All Together

Success isn’t just about WHAT you achieve — it’s about HOW you achieve it, how you market it, and what you do NEXT.

Here’s your action plan:

1. Audit Your Metrics

   • List your current success metrics

   • Map each one to real business value

   • Identify any gaps or vanity metrics (do not measure for measurement’s sake alone)

2. Build Your Infrastructure

   • Document your winning approaches

   • Create measurement frameworks

   • Establish knowledge-sharing systems

3. Connect the Dots

   • Map achievements to strategy

   • Identify future opportunities

   • Share the bigger picture

4. Look Forward

   • Plan your next moves

   • Leverage new capabilities

   • Scale your successes

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Want to dive deeper into turning results into recognition? What traps have you encountered? How did you overcome them?

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— Gregor