At the end of every month you collect one of two things: a result, or a reason. Most owners collect both and only notice the reason, because the reason is the part that gets said out loud. This is not about positive thinking, and it is not about pretending external factors do not exist. Most reasons are entirely true. The point is that being true and being useful are different tests, and only one of them changes next month's number.
Every outcome has causes. Some sit outside you: a client's budget freeze, a supplier going under, interest rates, the weather in February. Some sit with you: what you priced, who you hired, what you followed up, what you tolerated. The results mindset says you are free to note the reason, and not free to stop there.
Two ways to respond to the same number
The closed loop — reasons
Explain, justify, move on, repeat. There is no feedback anywhere in it, so nothing improves, and each lap ends precisely where it began. A reason that is entirely accurate and entirely unactionable leaves you holding a very good explanation of a number you did not want.
The open chain — results
What did I control? Change one thing. Measure again. It is slower to say and it is the only version with a different ending. Note that this chain does not require the reason to be false. It only requires you to keep going after it.
Why reasons are so attractive
Because they are accurate, and accuracy feels like rigour. Because they protect your identity: if the market did it, you are not the problem. Because they are socially rewarded, and a well-told reason gets sympathetic nods at every business breakfast in the country.
Mostly, though, because they cost nothing. Missing your number by £13,000 and concluding that January is always quiet is free. Missing it by £13,000 and concluding that you stopped following up quotes after day three is not free. It requires you to have been wrong, and then to do something about it on a Tuesday.
A worked example
Illustrative arithmetic, and a pattern you will recognise. An agency budgets £75,000 for the month and lands £62,000. Thirteen thousand short. The reasons, all genuine: two clients delayed sign-off, a senior designer was off for nine days, the big proposal went quiet, and January is January.
Now the results question: what was inside our control, even partly? So the owner goes to the pipeline. Fourteen proposals went out over the quarter and five were won, a conversion rate of around 36 per cent. Of the nine lost, six had no recorded follow-up after the initial send. The average proposal value across the quarter was £9,400.
Six proposals with no follow-up. Even at one-in-three conversion on a proper follow-up sequence, that is two more wins, roughly £18,800. The £13,000 gap does not live in January. It lives in what happened on day three after a proposal was emailed, which is entirely within the agency's control and costs nothing but a phone call. Nothing on the reasons list was untrue. The designer really was off. They simply were not the lever, and the whole of the previous management meeting had been spent on them.
The two tests that separate them
If this reason disappeared tomorrow, would the number change?
If a supplier's late delivery genuinely cost you £40,000, then supplier reliability is a real lever and belongs on the action list — which makes it a result, not a reason. If removing it changes nothing material, you are describing weather.
What part of this did I control, even ten per cent of it?
Plenty of situations are overwhelmingly external. The results mindset is not a claim that you caused everything. It is a refusal to leave the small controllable share unexamined because the large uncontrollable share is more interesting to talk about.
Put simply: reasons belong in the report, results belong in the review. You can write the reason down. You just cannot finish the meeting there.
How to apply it this week
- Take your last missed number and split the page. Reasons on the left, what I controlled on the right. Do not stop until the right-hand column has at least three entries with numbers attached.
- Change the standing question in your management meeting. Replace "why did that happen" with "what will we do differently, by when, and how will we know". Same meeting, entirely different output.
- Attach a number to each controllable factor and pick the biggest. One rule, one owner, one review date. Not six improvements. One.
- Write down your stock reason. Everybody has one: staff, the market, HMRC, the bank, the season. Write yours on a card and put it where you do your monthly review. Its job is to make you notice when you reach for it.
- Ban the word "just" in reviews. We just had a quiet month. It was just a one-off. The word is a full stop where a question should be.
- Diarise the check. A results mindset with no measurement date is only a better-sounding reason. Six weeks out, in the calendar, with the number you expect to see written next to it.
The mistake most owners make
They turn it into blame. "Results not reasons" gets said in a firm voice, and what the team hears is "do not bring me problems". So they stop bringing you problems. You now have a quieter business with worse information in it, which will cost you far more than an occasional excuse ever did.
The opposite mistake is just as common: refusing to acknowledge a genuine external cause because acknowledging it feels like going soft. If a key client went into administration, it went into administration. Saying otherwise makes you look like you are not paying attention, and people stop trusting your read on the business.
The discipline is to do both in one breath. Name the external fact plainly, then move straight to the controllable part without leaving a gap in the middle where a debate can grow.
Questions to ask yourself
- Out of 10, how much of your last monthly review was spent explaining the number rather than deciding something because of it?
- What is your stock reason, and how many quarters have you been using it now?
- If the thing you blamed last quarter never changes, what is your actual plan?
- Where are you ten per cent responsible for something you have been quietly treating as none of your doing?
The takeaway: this is not a slogan about attitude. It is a question you put at the end of every review, every month, until it becomes the normal way your business talks about a number it did not like.
Where this fits
How you think and decide under pressure is Personal Coaching work, and it is the change that shows up fastest in a business. Productivity is the companion when the honest answer is that the controllable work never got a slot, and Principles and Universal Laws explains why the consequence so often arrives a season after the cause.
Get the next one in your inbox
One practical, plain-English guide for business owners each week. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
Common questions
Isn't the results mindset just refusing to accept reality?
The opposite. It starts by accepting the external facts plainly, because pretending a client did not go into administration makes you look like you are not paying attention and costs you credibility with the team. What it refuses is stopping there. A reason can be completely accurate and completely unactionable at the same time, and an explanation you cannot act on leaves next month's number exactly where it was. The discipline is to name the external cause in one breath and move straight to the controllable part in the next, without leaving a gap in the middle where a debate about blame can grow.
How do I use this in a management meeting without it turning into blame?
Change the standing question rather than the tone. Replace why did that happen with what will we do differently, by when, and how will we know. Blame comes from asking people to account for the past; improvement comes from asking them to commit to a specific change with a date on it. Be careful of saying results not reasons in a firm voice, because what a team usually hears is do not bring me problems, and then they stop bringing you problems. A quieter business with worse information in it will cost you far more than the occasional excuse ever did.
What is a stock reason and why does it matter so much?
It is the explanation you reach for automatically whenever a number disappoints: the market, the season, staff, HMRC, the bank. Everybody has one, and its danger is that it is usually partly true, which makes it feel like analysis rather than habit. The test is how many quarters you have now been using it. If the thing you blamed last quarter is never going to change, then it is a condition you operate inside rather than a cause you are addressing, and you need a plan that assumes it stays. Write yours on a card and keep it where you do your monthly review.