Strategic Discipline Blog

If you want to improve something what should you do?  First make it a priority, then begin measuring it.  One of my clients and I share a goal to improve our lead generation activities.  We‘ve been talking about improving performance for months and recently decided in order to improve our behavior we need to make this intention a priority.  Establishing the priority came first.  Then we had to decide to measure it and finally put accountability in place. 

Developing a dashboard for my lead generation activities I sent this to my client.  He liked the dashboard and began using it to report his progress daily.  We keep each other accountable to the priority we set, utilizing the dashboard to track our progress.

This is a simple routine.  It sets the stage for growth.  Do you have employees that you’d like to see improve their performance?  What’s the priority you’d like to set?  What kind of dashboard can you create to make them accountable?  What type of reporting routine makes sense to set up to keep them responsible for improving?

One of my priorities for 2012 is to improve my speaking and presentation performance.  I’ve joined Toastmasters to make sure I’m held accountable for improving. As required by Toastmasters each week I will practice speaking in front of my peers.   I will be held to a high set of standards that will require me to continually work on my performance and be graded.  Improvement comes from making a decision to get better.   Without feedback and measurement you gain little understanding on whether you are making progress. 

Priorities requiring metrics is a good reminder of Pearson’s Law, “When performance is measured, performance improves.  When performance is measured and reported back performance improves dramatically.”  

Based on Pearson’s Law when making your plans for 2012 you can confidently predict you will make progress.  Set your priorities, determine the metrics you will use to measure progress, and then get an accountability partner.  Do you have someone to help you be accountable to your 2012 priorities?