What KPIs are you measuring at work?
I”m sure you have financial metrics you assess, and probably some customer metrics as well.
Do you measure results such as revenue, budgetary expenses, payroll, and/or profit?
What about customer count, retention, average ticket/basket, marketing cost per new acquisition, or customer satisfaction?
No matter your role in your organization, you are measuring something related to both your personal and team performance.
Why do I know that?
Because a team that doesn’t measure its performance is a team that shouldn’t exist in a business.
Yes, that’s a strong statement but read it again.
Measuring Helps Drive Team Success
Teams exist in a company to deliver to the customer, whether that customer is internal, external, or both.
If you’re not measuring how well you’re doing that, then you are working with guesses and hopes, not facts. We must run a business on facts.
HR won’t be looking at external customer satisfaction, but they will be looking at internal customer satisfaction. This metric drives their actions, behavior, and follow-up.
Even finance teams measure themselves on how fast, how accurate, and how well they organize the data so that the business leaders have actionable data to use in order to move the business forward.
The point is that every team has to measure what it does in order to be considered successful.
Now here’s some shocking news.
Did you know that the majority of teams are not actually measuring the most critical KPI?
Take a moment to think . . . what is the most critical KPI?
What is a universal KPI that exists across all teams, industries, and economies?
What did I forget?
What did I leave off?
The answer is: value
The most critical KPI every single team must deliver in order to be of benefit to the organization is value.
Value is essentially the importance or worth of something.
Now you may immediately think, “Katrina, the KPIs I look at for my team are a composite of the value we add to the company.”
Maybe.
But in many instances that isn’t the case.
You see, the majority of employees don’t even realize that their primary role in a company is to provide value.
We get so focused on ourselves and what we need, that we get caught up in the fires of the moment, and we get sucked into the human drama around us.
You name it, we get distracted by it.
We start focusing on the most immediate issues and then we get comfortable with the routine and experience the law of familiarity.
We are so familiar with the company, the team, the work, and the expectations, that we think we know what is expected of us. So month after month, year after year, we are given targets to hit that are supposed to be measures of our “value-add” in the organization.
We work with our teams to deliver to those targets but do we ever ask ourselves if those targets are the ones that truly measure how much value your team adds?
Do you ever challenge:
- A metric?
- A way of calculating that metric?
- A target that was set for you?
Do you challenge not because you dislike it, but because it doesn’t accurately measure the value your team specifically adds to the company? Such that if the metric is low, you know very clearly that your team isn’t adding the level of value the company deserves.
How do you know if you are measuring the right lead measures that convey whether or not you and your team are adding exceptional value?
Measuring the Correct Lead Measures
It’s a great question. Let’s go through a quick 5-step process to confirm you are truly measuring the right KPIs that reflect your team’s value-add.
First, define what your team does for the company that is valuable. Is it serving the customer directly? Is it creating the marketing to gain market share? Is it protecting the organization legally? Is it providing financial analysis and clarity? What is it that your team does that adds value to the organization?
Define what you and your team do. Define how your actions add value. Then just to be sure your definition is correct, ask someone above you in the organization to define how your team is expected to add value to the organization.
Second, now that you have your definition, define all of the KPIs that would accurately measure your team’s contribution. Will you see your added value in the finances? In the customer metrics? Where exactly will you see them? How much impact will your team have?
Third, honestly assess how well your team is doing.
Fourth, make changes, pivot, and start/continue adding value at the highest level.
If you and your team are not adding value, you’re not valuable to the company. This means you’re not an asset you’re an expense. When you become an asset, your career will be both secure and successful.
If you want support on the 5-step process or adding value, book a call, and let’s chat more about it.