You Shall Know Them by Their Results

Once upon a time, in a small town, there were two men named Joaquín González. One was a priest and the other a taxi driver. Fate would have it that they both died on the same day. They then arrived in Heaven, where Saint Peter was waiting for them.

“Your name?” Saint Peter asks the first man. “Joaquín González.” “The priest?” “No, no—the taxi driver.”

Saint Peter checks his list and says:

“Well, you have earned Paradise. These silk robes woven with gold thread and this gold staff inlaid with rubies are yours. You may enter.” “Thank you, thank you…” says the taxi driver.

Two more people go through, and then it is the other Joaquín’s turn, having witnessed his fellow townsman’s entrance.

“Your name?” “Joaquín González.” “The priest?” “Yes.” “Very well, my son. You have earned Paradise. This polyester robe and this plastic staff are yours.”

The priest says:

“Forgive me, not to boast, but… there must be some mistake! I am Joaquín González, the priest!” “Yes, my son, you have earned Paradise; the robe is yours…” “No, that cannot be! I know the other gentleman; he was a taxi driver and lived in my town. He was a terrible taxi driver! He drove onto the pavements, crashed every day, once drove into a house, drove terribly, knocked down lamp posts—he ran over everything in his path. And I spent fifty years of my life preaching every Sunday in the parish. How can he receive a robe woven with gold thread and a ruby staff, while I get this? There must be some mistake!” “No, it is no mistake,” says Saint Peter. “The thing is, globalisation has arrived here in Heaven, along with its new management approaches. We no longer carry out assessments as we used to.” “What? I do not understand…” “Of course, we now operate according to objectives and results. Look, I will explain your case and you will understand immediately: over the past fifty years, whenever you preached, people fell asleep; but whenever the taxi driver drove, people prayed and remembered God. So, who sold more of our services? Results are what matter to us, my son.”

RE – SULTS! I have always defended the idea that there is no single best way of doing things, nor is there an ideal style or way of managing, administering or leading; everything depends on the “concrete historical” conditions and on events and contingencies, on the preparation, capabilities and knowledge of those involved in any given process, on the mission and strategy to be pursued, on the organisational culture, and so forth. But if there is one truth in all this, it is that we all pursue results in every action we take within our organisation, and a good way to assess ourselves is through those results. I will not go into the contradiction of whether what matters is the what or the how, or the what of the how… To reach an end point, a path must be mapped out, and throughout the strategic management process, we align effort and performance with the course previously charted. Likewise, every organisation has a statement of values that guides the behaviour of its people; there are reference points for the desired places and positions; and, through the declaration of strategy, a way and attitude to be adopted throughout the process are defined… Then come the results, which are where we want to arrive. In our times, a company’s results depend directly on how its intangible assets have been strategically managed. It is more than evident that they constitute a competitive advantage in this knowledge era, and it is essential for any company aspiring to prevail in competition to establish strategies that develop the organisation’s capabilities to carry out its activities. These capabilities are the abilities of a pool of resources to perform a particular activity and represent the outcome of those resources working as a team. They include a set of relationships between human resources and other resources, hence the importance of these relationships within every work team and/or process. How coordination is manifested among these sets of resources and teams will be reflected in the level of results achieved. Hence the importance of leadership, culture and style in motivating and fostering a spirit of commitment and cooperation among members in carrying out their duties. In their work “Results-Based Leadership,” Ulrich, Zenger and Smallwood identify four critical capabilities that leaders must generate, develop and leverage to gain competitive advantages within the organisation.

1. Learning: the ability to innovate, generate new ideas and leverage knowledge.
2. Speed: the ability to act with agility and the capacity for change.
3. Boundarylessness: the ability to collaborate in teams across organisational units and to operate as a virtual organisation.
4. Accountability: the ability to maintain discipline, re-engineer work processes and create a sense of ownership among employees, all with a view to achieving results.

The promotion, development and even balancing of these critical capabilities within the organisation, given their interdependence, will have an impact on the successful performance of employees in their activities, bringing about the expected results for the organisation. A management strategy based on effective human resources management through these four variables or critical capabilities will be an effective tool for satisfying both internal and external customers, as well as for the company’s performance, recognition and rewards.