Are you activity-focused or outcome-focused? There’s a big difference between the two.
Being activity-focused can mean you’re working really hard and doing a lot. But are you actually getting results? Or are you just spinning your wheels?
Activity focus can make people feel like they’re accomplishing more than they really are. It can lead to frustration because they’re working hard, but not seeing real outcomes. It seems like it’s good—it feels good to be busy—but it’s not truly achieving anything.
Outcome focus is different. It means asking: Are we working on the right things? Are the things we’re doing actually producing the results we want? What is the expected outcome? Are we reaching it, making progress toward it or falling behind?
That’s a big difference. And it’s how real results get accomplished.
This shows up in meetings, too. Recently, I had two back-to-back meetings. The first one was more of a readout, looking at all the stuff we’re doing. But it was hard to get the conversation focused on if we are accomplishing anything. We weren’t sharing progress. We talked about KPIs, but they weren’t connected to any goals. Some didn’t even have goals—which is a big pet peeve of mine.
That meeting felt like a list of tasks. You could sense the frustration and lack of alignment. No one really knew what was going on. That’s where bad meetings happen. You leave thinking, “We talked a lot, but did we decide anything or get anything done?” If not, that’s frustrating—and that’s why people hate meetings.
The next day, we had another meeting, and it was completely different. It was outcome-focused. We talked about what we wanted to accomplish, how we were progressing and we made real decisions. We left that meeting aligned and ready to take action.
That meeting felt energizing. I even talked about it with my team afterward. It was more engaging and productive.
So think about this– Are you activity-focused or outcome-focused? And are your meetings just readouts of busy work? Or are they focused on progress, decisions and results?
