I have a simple rule when following my GPS in unfamiliar places: follow the GPS. It might take you down a strange narrow street, but it will get you where you want to go…
A good Strategy will take you to unfamiliar places. A good strategy also makes it very clear how you’ll know if you’re on track to where you want to go.
Fools rush off into unknown places without navigation aids. Poor leaders take their teams into places without good navigation aids. In most organizations this comes down to one key thing – Data.
Structured and consistent data gives high performing teams their position quickly and honestly, whether good or bad. Good leaders don’t wait until they’re lost or not performing to start measuring progress.
In fact, the best time to create any system to measure performance is when you don’t need it – before you get into trouble. The reason is simple, once we are in trouble our brains come under stress.
Under stress we don’t think straight. We can either start to panic or start to find excuses (both sure symptoms of high stress by the way..). An all too human way to avoid the stress of missing a target is to move the target. This happens a lot.
As a leader your job is to make moving the targets hard – by making sure you are relying on solid measures and data, preferably independently measured.
“Good leaders don’t wait until they’re lost or not performing to start measuring progress..”
If you’re not measuring closely it doesn’t matter what your target is because you’ll never know if you miss it anyway.
Poor leaders create strategies and plans that don’t include strong clear measures. Sometimes this means they can get the credit for setting tough targets knowing they can move them or distract from them anytime. Politicians are experts at this, so are con-artists.
Leaders who allow target slippage deserve the results they get.
As you set your long term Objectives have you also set up how you’ll objectively measure progress?
Do all the elements of your plan have individual tracking or just the overall result?
Are those measures and the systems to get them a part of your Strategy, or left to someone else to do?
Image credits: thetruthspy.com