I’ve always been into a results-based management approach. I don’t care whether you’re at your desk at 8 or whether you look busy when I walk through the room. If you get your work done, I’m happy.

I care about results. Are you generating the revenues? Are you creating happy clients? Are you answering the phone? I’m a big believer in results rather than process. I always measure the bottom line for each member of our team.

Focusing on results is easier said than done. The fact is that having people in close physical proximity makes it easier for me to assess and measure them. Unfortunately, those measurements tend to be subjective. I get a feel for how people are doing and whether they’re being productive. That “feeling” supplements most results-based systems because the data collection system is inaccurate or poorly designed.

Managing people based purely on results requires a really good manager (and I’m not here to claim that title, yet).

A virtual practice with distributed employees creates huge management challenges.

We’re in the midst of further distributing our team. We’re moving away from offices and toward people working wherever they like. We’ll fully transition in the next few months. We’ve given up one office location and are leaving two others this spring as leases expire. We’ve been managing about one-third of our team remotely for quite a while already.

The pressure is on to master a results-based approach to management because we won’t have the crutch of getting that “feeling” once we move out of our current spaces.

Previously, we have implemented a results-based compensation system, and that helps tremendously as we shift our arrangement. However, that system affects mostly lawyers and not staff. We’re getting very focused on staff management in a way we really haven’t before.

One shortcut we’ve stumbled onto, which helps us compensate for our inadequate management skills, is outsourcing. We’ve outsourced major chunks of marketing, technology, and finance. The folks handling those functions tend to operate as business owners. They know that they control their own destiny and require far less supervision. They’re selling us a service, and they understand that they won’t get paid if they don’t deliver.

But we’re going to continue to have some employees who don’t own their own business and aren’t on a results-based compensation system. Managing those people is going to be much harder from a distance. We’re gearing up for the challenge. I’ll tell you more here as I figure things out. If you’ve got some ideas, tips, clues, etc., please share them with us in the comments below.