Metrics that Motivate

Empowerment is generally a key factor when considering motivation, and is particularly important when defining appropriate metrics.  Creating a balance between a framework for success and freedom to operate is vital to ensure those contributing to your business are empowered to deliver.

Before we get into the challenge of empowering through metrics, we first need to understand how to evaluate whether a metric is ‘good’.  Simply, there are two key factors; clarity of ownership and clarity of expectation.  If your meeting consists of working through your metrics rather than what action you plan to take as a result, it will be because one of these factors is not clear.  The quadrant below can help diagnose when this is happening.

Diagnosing lack of clarity with respect to metrics

 

Creating clarity at first glance may seem simple, but in reality it can be quite complex to deliver the levels of clarity your organization needs.

 

As a minimum, expectations need to consider timescales, method of measurement, level of response, target and acceptable tolerance.  Ownership should include scope of inclusion, categorization and frequency of reporting.  As with many things, the devil is in the detail, and these factors become more involved as they are explored.

Now, back to empowerment.  It is important to remember that every metric is a constraint.  They shape the desired outcome.  Therefore, the more there are, the more disempowered the owner will feel.  A real danger is that so many metrics are put in place they become mutually exclusive, making success impossible.

Therefore, the fewer metrics the better, right?  Almost.

Metrics do drive behavior, and there has to be some balance.  If you put in place just a single metric for the Customer Service Manager, it would probably be to reduce the number of customer complaints.  The easiest way to do that is to reduce the number of customers served, by giving service so bad that people simply don’t stay as customers.  There is no balance, and the eventual outcome is bad for business. 

I know that is a pretty extreme example, but it serves to make the point.  I have seen many situations where this kind of behavior has been at play, and the overall business suffers as a result.

So, there is a need to create a balanced pair of metrics for each key accountability.  These can be distilled through asking two simple questions;

 

1.       What single metric should be used to establish whether the role has been done?

2.       What balancing metric should be used to establish whether the role has been done well?

 

For example, the role might be accountable to drive growth, and so annual sales growth might be the primary metric.  The balancing metric could be the percentage of profit for the total business.

 

I challenge you to give it a try, either for your own or another role - it would be great to hear how you went!