One of my favorite stories (unfortunately, I do not know the original author) is about an expert archer.

One day the archer is walking through a forest.  On every tree he sees an arrow shot perfectly through a bullseye.  The archer continues his walk noticing more trees and more bullseyes.  Finally, he reaches a stream.  There is an old frail looking man sitting along the bank.  The man has a beaten up bow and a quiver of arrows.  The archer asks, “Do you know who is responsible for the perfect marksmanship throughout the forest?”  The old man replies, “I am”.  The archer can hardly keep from laughing.  “You?  You are responsible for this extraordinary marksmanship?  You can barely stand.  I’ll give you $100,000 if you can shoot a bullseye right now.”  The old man smiles and stands up.  He pulls an arrow from his quiver, take aim at the nearest tree and releases.  Whooosh.  The arrow hits the tree.  The old man walks over to the tree, pulls a can of white paint, and draws a set of concentric circles around the arrow.  He looks to the archer and asks, “Will that be cash or check?”

Shoot first, draw circles later.  It’s an outrageous story.  Yet, I see it all of the time in business (and in our personal lives).  People often reverse engineer their success.  While creating an illusion of accomplishment, it may not always result in a lasting impact.

The classic example of this in business occurs at annual review time.  Each person has a year’s worth of effort that they must somehow translate into a “value added” contribution to the company.  Not surprisingly, nearly every employee is able to build a strong case for how much better off the organization is as a result of his or her effort.  Shoot first, draw circles later.  When a person’s rating, promotion, and raise depend making a contribution, it’s amazing how easy it is to find one.

As I work with leaders and their teams on goal setting and accountability, I suggest that they reverse the process.  Draw the circles first and then shoot.  Determining contribution shouldn’t be hard.  The contribution should be defined in the employee’s annual goals.  Then, at the end of the year, quantifying the contribution should be as simple as counting up the number of goals that were met (i.e., bullseyes).  Unfortunately, in many organizations, the goals set at the beginning of the year are often a weak list of activities that really aren’t going to make much difference to the organization.  Most of the time they are forgotten about when year-end rolls around.  Or, despite being achieved, they don’t really make much off a difference. Thus the creative writing process begins.  Get employees to commit to a meaningful contribution at the beginning of the year.  Then, assess them on how well the deliver on that promise.

A subtler example of this occurs when people reflect on their personal effectiveness. For example, ask your leaders a simple question like, “How well do you develop your people” or “Are you providing enough feedback”.  If the answer is a story or two (“one time I did x”) they are probably drawing the circles after the fact.  When pressed, most people can conjure up one or two examples of proper behavior.  The real question is whether that behavior occurs consistently and systemically.  On the other hand, if the leader explains his or her process for developing people or providing feedback, he or she probably set the target first.  For example, I knew a leader who kept a post-it note on her desk for each direct report.  The post-it note contained two to three developmental areas for that person.  Each time she was making project assignments, she scanned the post-its to see where there might be opportunities to develop her people.  When she was meeting with her boss or peers, she’d scan the post-its to see who need her advocacy or some visibility with leadership.  Prior to meeting one of her people, she’d review the post-it and reflect on what type of feedback or advice she should offer in the meeting.  She didn’t leave her team’s development to chance (and then take credit later if it happened to work).  She made a commitment to develop her people.  She then built an executed an on-going process to make sure it happened.

It’s easier to shoot first and draw circles later.  It also yields much greater success.  However, success does not always equal impact.  Committing to a meaningful contribution is hard.  It’s scary.  It creates risk. It might even result in fewer “successes”.  However, while there may be fewer successes there will most certainly be more impact.

Create meaningful, outcome-based goals that reflect the changes you’d like to see made in your organization.  Get people to commit to those goals.  Then measure their success based on how well they deliver.

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Brad Kolar is an executive consultant, speaker, and author with Avail Advisors.  Avail’s Outcome-based management approach can help you better drive results and impact in your organization.  Contact Brad at brad.kolar@availadvisors.com.