Brave + Bold = Better RESULTS
By Tony Jeary – The RESULTS GuyTM
How brave are you when it comes to doing what it takes to ensure you get the results you want? I’m talking about the kind of bravery that energizes you to invest the time and energy required to reach out and achieve your goals. Being bold enough to take the necessary actions and execute to get what you want is a great quality to have.
Your level of execution is really determined by your level of boldness. Here’s what I mean by that: Good execution is getting things done. It’s almost like maintaining the status quo, and it doesn’t take a lot of boldness. Great execution is getting things done fast and on purpose. At this level, you’ve perhaps stepped out of your comfort zone just enough to get a good jump on your competition. The highest level of execution, though, is about getting the right things done and getting them done fast, on purpose, and with what I call Elegant Solutions—those activities that allow you to accomplish multiple objectives with the same effort.
Executing at the highest level requires a boldness beyond what most people experience. For one thing, you have to be bold enough to manage your time better than you ever have, and that probably involves change. Two of the most important elements in managing your time are saying “no” appropriately and avoiding procrastination. If you’re not bold enough to say “no” to the wrong things so you can say “yes” to focusing on your High Leverage Activities, you’ll not be able to execute at the highest level and you won’t achieve the results that come with that level. And procrastination can derail your results almost as fast as not saying “no” smartly.
Sometimes you may need to wait and intuitively think about something, and that’s positive procrastination. Generally speaking, though, boldness is the opposite of procrastination. It’s making things happen. It’s being able to analyze quickly because you’ve done the prep work. When you plan and prepare so you can have clarity about what’s important—starting with being sure of your values—and you know where you’re going, you can be brave enough to step out and make bold, yet calculated risks in your execution.
Yes, you have to measure risk smartly, because you don’t want to go overboard and risk a relationship or a brand or a reputation by being too aggressive. I’ve gone around the world for almost three decades impacting people’s thinking—and hence their lives—and encouraging them to be aggressive, with the right measure of risk, and to take action to get the results they really want.
Sometimes personalities may come into play in this theme. People who have a Driver-type personality (using the DISC personality profile example) are generally bolder and occasionally more abrasive, and they need to watch out for casualties that could occur if they scrape someone’s feelings.
To execute at the highest level, you need to:
- Know your values and what’s important to you.
- Be really clear on the brand you have and want to continue building.
- Take action smartly; be bold in managing your time and making decisions so you’re seen as a person who takes action and gets things done.
When you’ve done those three things, you should be getting much more of the right RESULTS faster!
