An effective Outcome fits the following guidelines;
1. Express it positively around what you want to happen.
2. Outcomes should be about what you can control.
3. Be ambitious.
4. Avoid negative commands.
5. Be precise and concise.
6. Better to add an extra Outcome than have long, vague and rambling ones.
My Outcomes for the Inspirational Talk
For my inspirational speech, I wanted Outcomes to cover these key objectives;
- My words had to inspire the squad.
- To prevent my nerves from overwhelming me.
My first thoughts for Outcomes went along these lines;
- To be authentic, calm and confident.
- To talk loud and clearly.
- I’ll deliver my talk professionally.
- To blow everyone away with a fantastic inspirational script
After a bit of thought, I went with A;
To be authentic, calm and confident.
And D;
To blow everyone away with a fantastic inspirational script.
“You may look at A and see three distinct features of behaviour.
And so, in theory, it would be better written out like this;
A. I’m going to be authentic.
B. I’m going to be calm.
C. I’m going to be confident.
Whilst this is true, these features, in my mind, go well together. They work as a set. It’s not rambling, confusing or pointing me in three separate directions.
Each word – ‘authentic, calm, confident’ – has a distinct and aligned meaning for me. And together, they describe the one overall mental state I wanted for the talk.
And so, I’m happy with the Outcome phrased that way.
And if I am “authentic, calm and confident,” I believe I will also be “professional loud and clear.” So, while the rest of the Outcomes are fine, I’m happy with what I’ve got. It’s good to be concise and precise, so I don’t need them.
Outcome D, ‘To blow everyone away with a fantastic inspirational script,’ is bold and ambitious. In truth, it’s a bit cocky, and it needs to be.
I’m an introvert, and if my Outcome was to be my natural self, my performance would be nothing to write home about. And that would amount to a failure for this job.
You can’t perform at the highest levels unless you aim for them. So I had to shoot higher. I could only succeed if I set the bar to the highest level of achievement possible for me. No matter how hard and unreal that felt.
And so, I set out to ‘blow everyone away’. Even though the prospect of delivering this talk filled me with fear and doubt, nothing less would do.
Note how the language is informal and what I’m comfortable with…
These Outcomes had to work for me. No one else had to approve them.
Once I had my Outcomes, I started to use them straight away to quiet my nerves.
You’ll know from the Outcomes chapter that Realisation is a vital part of the process. It turns your Outcome into a ‘Stroop Magnet’ to draw your System 1 mind to search for every feasible route to success.
And Realisation blends easily and neatly with Manage Your State to conquer nerves. And it’s so flexible and simple that it can be done anywhere at any time. So this is where we’ll start the next step.
Up Next
Skill 2: Calming My Nerves and Developing Confidence. Click here.