Measure what matters most…

Here’s an example of a “score” for my opus. Remember, the “s” of opus stands for scorecard for significance. We want your opus to have some kinda soft measurement that means something to you. We expect you to have plenty of hard ones around revenue, profit, performance metrics that drive performance, and the like. Every healthy system has metrics to give them feedback that the system is either progressing or regressing. Isn’t it funny, however, that most of those metrics are not forward looking but rather historical in nature. I mean last quarters performance doesn’t tell me what the next will be, does it?

So, at BTL, we force our clients to think about their labor of love, their opus, and some soft measures that they can’t control. One of my recent additions to my scorecard is the quality of the questions the team asks of their leader at the end of practice. I’m looking for playfulness and toughness. I consider it a “score”when good, hard, questions are raised out in the open. This indicates trust is high. It’s really hard to measure trust and trust is the ultimate performance driver, isn’t it. Try proving it hasn’t been for you, to you. And, I consider it a “score” when the questions are fun and poke fun at the leader. This indicates he/she has made it safe, is approachable, and has moved beyond command and control to real community. In essence, another measurement of trust – the heart of performance. I also score when letters, emails, cards, and voicemails arrive and the content is a surprising confirmation of someone getting it. These kinda scores keep me going in the midst of all kinda strife and unmet expectations. Here’s the one that greeted me this morning upon wakey wake. Enjoy.

“If I translate my learning from practice into a soccer analogy its simple.  Right now I am the player who has had a good stretch of games and its time to take it from a good stretch of games to the new norm.  However any coach or player that has played any sport will tell you that just doesn’t happen.  There is a conscious effort to turn good performances from the exception to the expectation.  I have to make the performance (the performance being challenging) by sharing my opinion, asking challenging questions, and making my presence felt– consistently, not just with my team and around my peers. The way that works, is actually by going back to work.  We talked about taking Sunday writing deeper taking it to the next level.  We have momentum coming from it so push, double down on it.  The tendency is to become complacent. Fight this. Consistency has to be created with the physical activity as well, going to the gym is too often in fits and starts, make it consistent make it part of regular life.  What gets measured gets done, each weeks tracking how many workouts get done.  I am going to add to that the consistency of reading.  I am going to track how many pages per week.  Baby step PA.  2 workouts. 40 pages.   Long term goal 4-5 workouts a week.  100-150 pages.”

The scorecard for significance is soft and really hard. Hard metrics are, in fact, rather easy. Fix your eyes on the hard stuff, leader. Measure what matters most. Good…