MAY UPDATES

“You can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

I remember the first time I heard this quote by Peter Drucker, the father of modern management theory. It really stood out for me, and I learned that it is a truth in business as well as our personal lives.

It is one of the many reasons I became a fan of open book financials (sharing your numbers and profitability information with employees) and programs like Entrepreneurial Operation System (EOS). These frameworks help to connect employees to outcomes, and they allow you to share financial success with your team.

It can be difficult to “define victory” at times but it is our responsibility as leaders and people of influence to keep trying – and we are a mosaic of influence.

My experience:

1. Make goals and incentives attainable, fair, and easy to understand.
2. Share the results instantly (same day) with minimal human intervention/effort.
3. And watch people become more engaged and focused on winning.
   

On the personal front, I am a sucker for apps that measure automatically. Strava makes it easy to track my walks, hikes, bike rides and even skiing (when I remember to switch it on). And I get an odd satisfaction from looking at the results and feeding the numbers into an Excel spreadsheet.

When I set out to walk 1,000-miles this year to do something about the melanoma that struck my friend group, it was really an extension of my desire to measure and keep score.

Yes, 1,000 miles is totally arbitrary, but I felt helpless, and, at times, it has been a challenge to stay on track (currently 42.28 miles off my annual goal).

But it helps me to declare things publicly at www.paulwalks.com and through these updates. And it is motivating me to add more steps through these warmer summer months, even in steamy Ft. Lauderdale this weekend.

So, thank you for listening and following the effort. I hope you have a great week and you never forget the impact of your encouragement.

Paul