The What and the How

A few months ago, I spent time with a manufacturing company that was promoting internally for a sales management role. Two people were being considered. Both had strong results, great feedback and the respect of their customers. One was highly disciplined, structured in their approach and meticulous with every detail. The other worked with equal commitment, though their focus extended beyond their own targets. They asked questions, shared ideas and took time to help others succeed.

The what of their performance was identical. The how was not.

When the decision came, the second was promoted. Within weeks, the tone of the team shifted, more energy, more collaboration and more belief. The numbers soon followed.

Over the years leading sales teams, it became clear that leadership rests on two fundamentals: the what and the how. The balance between them defines everything that follows.

The what is the easier part. It is the numbers, the pipeline, the calls made, the targets hit. It is measurable, visible and safe. Most managers know how to track it, talk about it and build plans around it. The what gives structure and security. It feels logical.

Leadership starts to separate when you look at the how.

The how is about behaviour and intent, how people show up, how they communicate, how they respond to setbacks and how they handle pressure when things are not going to plan. It is also about whether they go above and beyond, drive initiatives and make things better for the team without being asked.

When hiring or promoting people, small details often reveal more than results. The best performers share knowledge without being asked, give credit easily and look for ways to make the team stronger. They take initiative, influence beyond their role and stay composed under pressure. They are open to feedback, respectful in how they work and consistent in how they show up. These traits are harder to measure, yet they decide whether a team sustains success or simply spikes and fades.

Numbers tell you what happened. Behaviour tells you whether it will happen again.

"The score takes care of itself when you take care of the performance."

-Bill Walsh

Most organisations reward the what and assume the how will follow; they celebrate the metric but neglect the meaning. Over time, that creates teams that perform on demand but rarely grow by choice.

The consequence is easy to spot. Performance peaks, but belief drops. Accountability becomes fear instead of pride. The data still looks healthy, but the culture underneath it starts to crack and before long, performance follows.

As teams grow, culture begins to mirror the leadership. The tone a leader sets becomes the permission others feel. Culture is not built through big speeches or off-sites, but through what people experience every day, the decisions you make, the standards protected and the way moments of tension are handled.

The bigger the team, the less a leader sees. The what becomes distant, the how becomes invisible. Leading through others means trusting that your values echo in rooms you are not in and making intent as clear as your instruction. That is when culture stops being what you say and starts being what people do when leadership is not present.

It is better to be respected than liked. Respect creates standards, liking creates comfort. One sustains performance, the other risks diluting it. The best leaders I have seen are fair, clear and consistent. They build trust, not popularity.

Respect anchors the how. It shapes behaviour long after targets are met.

Every leader is judged by what their team achieves, but remembered for how their team achieves it.

My leadership philosophy has become simple. Hire for the how, coach for the what. The what can be taught, the how usually cannot. Character is personal. Habits can shift, yet values rarely do.

The what and the how are not opposites. One sets the destination, the other decides whether people want to go there again.

When the two align, everything changes. Accountability becomes pride. Success becomes collective. Teams do not just perform, they grow.

Real leadership is measured not only by what is achieved, but by what remains when the leader is no longer there.