Results are the outcome of your efforts. The majority of people want better results, but most aren’t willing to put the work in and increase their effort to get their desired result or better. The best results are hard to get.

It’s not enough to want, strategize and dream of great results. The greatest results are most often a product of your greatest efforts. You want better results at work, then increase your effort and involvement. You want better results in your relationships, then invest more and give more effort. In life, you make a grave mistake when you take results for granted or expect them to happen just by wishful thinking. Great results require great work. And great work is growing increasingly rarer and rarer.

Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player to ever play the game that I’ve ever seen, said, “I’ve always believed if you put the work in, then the results will come.” Everyone wants to get the results they want, but not every one knows how to get those results. Jordan was not only supremely talented, surrounded by an outstanding team, but he was also legendary in the work he put in to get the results he wanted. Jordan was transcendent. He didn’t rest on his talent or his opportunity. He maximized his results by putting the work in.

Coach Roy Williams, who was Jordan’s assistant coach under the hall-of-famer and coaching legend Dean Smith, said that Michael told him as a freshman, “I’m going to show you. Nobody will ever work as hard as I do.” Michael Jordan, who famously got cut one year from his high school basketball team, would go on and win championships in both in college and professionally. Jordan would say, “I don’t do things half-heartedly. Because I know if I do, then I can expect half-hearted results.” One of my favorite scriptures is what the Apostle Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, do with all your heart as to the Lord and not unto men” (Colossians 3:23). If you are half-hearted, then you will most certainly never give maximum effort nor achieve your greatest results.

I have been developing as a leader and developing leaders for nearly three decades and one thing has been consistent: those who put the work in with their whole heart always get better results than those that don’t. I can trace those who I have worked with and those who have worked for me who have gone on with really successful careers even at young ages and they have all worked harder than everyone else in the organization. I am not talking about simply showing up for work. I have seen some really faithful people who show up day-after-day and absorb pressure-upon-pressure, yet still not get the results that those who reach elite results do. Why? Simply showing up to work and putting in the work is vastly different.

Showing Up to Work vs. Putting in the Work

Showing up to work is what people who want a paycheck and a promotion do. There are really faithful people who show up to work. But, this mindset is one that does the minimum required. People who show up don’t ask a lot of questions and don’t do a lot more than what is expected or required. Those who show up typically do want more, they just aren’t willing to push themselves to do more work. They live on the expectation that others are supposed to advance them. This is an error. This is small-minded thinking. People that just show up will never be the best or get the best results–someone else will.

Those that put the work in do things that most others do not or will not. They also think and prepare differently than the majority of their peers. I will outline somethings that I have learned and observed by those who have had achieved the greatest results and what kind of work they put in.

What Do Those That Put the Work in Have in Common:

Failure doesn’t define them. I have seen many developing leaders become disenfranchised when they didn’t get the results or the promotion they thought they deserved or had earned. To those who get the greatest results, failure doesn’t define them. Failure is part of the process. The mindset of those who get the best results is that it is not a choice between either failure or success, but that failure is part of the path to successful results. Early success in anyone’s life can be a great distraction or hindrance to sustaining future results. In fact, it is really hard to sustain early success. Failure is a tremendous teacher, because failure leads us to humility. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the light bulb, famously said, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”

In Possession of Humility. They posses more humility than most. If you want to get great results learn to have great humility. This is where so many leaders take the wrong turn. They seek to elevate themselves instead of lowering themselves. Humility gives you a circumspect or wider perspective. The greatest learners are the most humble people, because they have a teachable spirit and a willingness to learn. Proud people have a very narrow perspective and do not heed well the counsel or instruction of others. Humble people will work harder than proud people because nothing is beneath them. A proud person is above things and their position limits their effort.

-More Prepared than Others. They are the most prepared person in the room. Most people fail to get great results because they aren’t prepared to get great results. I have seen over and over again that those that get the best results are the most prepared people in the room. They don’t just collect information, they investigate how to use the information. Information is neutral. Preparation is positive. You must first get the information and then you must learn how to apply what you have learned. Otherwise, the information is useless. Some people mistakenly think that possessing information means they should get results or they should get promoted. They are wrong. It is the people that prepare, study, dig, investigate, discover and then apply the information that get the best results. These people are not just prepared with information, they are prepared to act on the information.

-Work with a Fire. Your work has a rhythm to it. Because work costs energy, all people that work have to create a rhythm in order to use and renew their energy. Those that get great results have an internal fire burning inside of them that boosts their level of energy. This fire is often called passion. This fire, this passion is deep within a person, but not buried. It burns within them. Now, they have to be careful not to burn others by it, but they don’t find something they are passionate about and then work. No, they are assigned a task and they are passionate about getting the results. These leaders set goals and set a fire to get their goals, even when they don’t like what they’ve been given to do. This fire is what sustains them so much longer, so much earlier and so much later than when others peel off, quit or run out of gas.

When Michael Jordan arrived at Chapel Hill, North Carolina as a freshman on the Tar Heels basketball team, he pulled James Worthy aside after a 2 and a half hour practice and asked him to go back to the gym and play some one-on-one. Jordan did this by his own admission because James Worthy, a future NBA champion with the Los Angels Lakers, was the best player on the team. Jordan knew that if he could learn from Worthy, he could ultimately beat him and become the best player on the team. Worthy would recount that once Jordan arrived, “I was the best player on the team for about two weeks.” Jordan approached not only had a desire to learn from the best, but a fire to ultimately beat the best. Working with a fire is working with urgency. Most people simply lack the fire, the urgency to do the extra work required in getting the best results.

Robert Lewandowski who plays striker for Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga this season broke a goal-scoring record that stood for nearly 50 years when he scored his 41st goal of the season in May of 2021. Lewandowski was asked about his technique of taking shots. He responded that “I do everything fast.” Lewandoski’s response demonstrates that he has an ultimate urgency when he trying to score goals. Leaders who want to get results and set records must have an urgency that most others lack.

Make Necessary Adjustments, Not Excuses. Those who get the greatest results eliminate excuses from their journey. An excuse is a response that relieves one of responsibility. An adjustment is an acceptance of responsibility with a necessary change. An adjustment is a needed change to produce a more favorable result. Results are always the product of a series of adjustments. The best results are never born from excuses. Think of adjustments like a combination lock. In order to open the lock, the right combination in the right order has to be executed. If you don’t get the series right, you will never open the lock. Opening a combination lock is a series of small adjustments. Sometimes, the adjustment is to back up, start again or move in an entirely different direction.

Take Ownership of the Outcome. Finally, those who get the greatest results are those who are willing to own the outcome from start to finish. This quality is really what separates those who dream from those who do and from those who wish from those that do the work. When you are willing to own the outcome, you are willing to put your name, your effort and your reputation on the line. Ownership means you have made yourself not only responsible, but accountable. Ownership is part responsibility, part activity and part accountability. You don’t have to be the actual owner to take actual ownership. My goal my entire career until I became my own boss was to make my boss look good. I discovered that if I took ownership without taking possession or perk, then I worked harder, worked longer, and ultimately, got better results. I am not proposing that you have to be a workaholic to get the results that you want. But, you will have to put in more work and take more ownership if you want to see the greatest results.

You can work really hard for a long time and still not always get the results that you desire or need. You have to be patient, focused and resilient. Our world has a multitude of distractions and attractions that will very easily steer you off course. Discipline is required to stay the course of great results.

Proverbs 13:23 says, “In all toil (work) there is profit, but mere talk leads to poverty.”

If you want profit or the positive outcome you are seeking, then put the toil, the work in. Those who just talk will have a poverty in their results that is active and ever-present. They will talk about what could be or what they think they can do. Those who “profit” will speak of what they have done or what they will get done. Those who profit will be believed by others because they have results. When you get results, others listen.

Do you want a bigger voice or a better seat at the table?

Then, go get better results!