Your Responsibilities as The "Chief Results Officer"

Back on August 4 th , the Wall Street Journal ran article about how the Board of Avon Products Inc., pushed out their CEO – they fired her – as a result of her 5 years of disappointing results.

If you’re the CEO or leader of your company (regardless of its size), you are ultimately responsible for what goes on. Why? Because, as the leader, you are paid to deliver (get) results – period! In essence, you’re the CRO; that is, the Chief Results Officer.

So now you’re thinking that you’re not a public company and not subject to a Board or shareholders. Make no mistake, whether you are a publically or privately held company, your customers have a say in how well you’re doing with respect to the quality of your results.

If your results don’t meet your customer’s expectations, they have a very simple way of telling you: They go elsewhere!

And, when they leave you, they tell others about your performance. At some point this customer exodus will threaten the very existence of your business. Your customers not only expect, but demand, that you continually get better and consistently deliver results that are valuable to them!

Related: The Most Important Decisions You Make Are Regarding Your People

In order to fulfill your responsibility of being the “Chief Results Officer,” you must devote time and effort to developing your team and company culture . Here are 6 simple steps you must consider:

Be clear on the goals you have set for your company and communicate them to all levels of your organization.

Set clear and measurable expectations to achieve those goals. Teams develop and perform best when they have a clear understanding of what’s expected.

Measure progress on a regular basis.

Take timely and deliberate corrective action when things go off course.

Communicate any changes to the strategy and set new expectations.

Beware of what others have described as the “success trap”: When an important goal has been met and the celebration of the achievement goes on longer than it should, and your team loses focus and momentum. Every big goal achieved opens the door to the next bigger challenge to be tackled.