In the COVID-19 pandemic these would include: washing our hands, refraining from touching our face, staying home and when outside our homes to maintaining a two metre distance from others who are not in our bubble. How well we do with these standards every day helps improve the performance of our society in fighting the worst that COVID-19 has to offer.

In our many years in school we learned more than we realized about KPIs. We had grades and report cards that measured how we did against a set of expectations. We may have had teachers who built rubrics to demonstrate expectations for an assignment or a course. Unfortunately most classroom learning experiences failed to teach students how to apply this in self-regulation for our career or potentially our own role as a leader or individual contributor.

KPIs are best understood in the context of KRAs. A KRA – Key Result Area – is one way of organizing critical aspects that are necessary to landing where we want to be by delivering on a set of KPIs.

I have typically found a matrix approach is most useful in developing a model for managing my KPIs within a helpful set of KRAs. To keep it simply as a way of illustrating what this means I will again use the COVID-19 experience and limit my discussion to two KRAs. I do appreciate that there are many more categories I could have added AND both of the two I chose could have been expanded to include multiple areas.

The first KRA is the health and safety of citizens. In the first section I outlined five of the KPIs that measure our performance in this area. There are more. As a society we measure our infected rate, hospitalization rate and ICU and ventilator numbers along with our recovery rate.

The second KRA is the financial safety of every citizen. The KPIs here are more systemic in nature. I expect the government is measuring the % of families supported, the

While serving the best interests of a society a leader, in this case a government, needs to evaluate where their investment in time and resources will make the most long term impact. That is the purpose of establishing meaningful KRAs and then carefully balancing the application of various KPIs. For example, would Canadians have been even reasonably compliant with the health standards if the financial impacts hadn’t been given equal balance?

 

KPIs: the Lead and the Lag

in addition to balancing our KPIs within KRA categories, it is useful to build a continuum of KPIs that range from what is referred to as lead and lag indicators.

Simply put, a lead indicator are behaviours or measures that, if taken early, will lead to the desired results. Again, in COVID-19 that includes the list I offered in the initial section above when defining KPIs. The challenge with most really powerful and meaningful lead indicators is that they must be performed effectively before seeing the results they produce. When people are not motivated to continue to deliver on lead indicators long enough to realize the results they seek, failure is likely. Moreover, the potential that had existed is never verifiable making the next attempt to achieve desired results is hampered.

A lag indicator is a measurement of results or desired outcomes. In a pandemic some lag indicators may be in hospitalizations or healthcare management or even death rates. Ultimately by the time you reach these indicators the impact of the lead indicators is unavoidable.

We can take this into a business setting. If weekly sales calls aren’t made as prescribed in established lead indicators or targets, the lag indicator at the end of the year will demonstrate be poor income or revenue results. At that point the outcome or lag indicator can not be improved upon, it can only be reported.

In examining the significance of properly establishing, monitoring and adjusting metrics to drive effective Key Performance Indicators, we learn to both guide a team or organization but also how to influence the trajectory of our own career. Essentially, as I indicated last week, this impacts how we engage the value chain.

The value chain starts where the lead indicators are the most prevalent and flows to the lag indicators where the proof is found in the pudding. Essentially if an organization or leader doesn’t hire and on-board effectively on the people side or isn’t able to articulate a clear vision or set of values and goals, they will see this failure flow directly into the results their business or team produces.

While I speak to the importance of building deep connections between every element of the value chain next week, this week the focus is on the early elements. The foundation to managing a value chain starts with people. Relationship building is critical.

 

Life is one big Experiment

The underlying point, again this week, emphasizes the benefit of approaching life as an experiment. Moreover, when we learn the skills to create community and put people first we establish meaningful interpersonal skills to support our self. Furthermore, we may then more closely monitor how our choices, decisions and ability to adjust our actions to our current situation. Then, we may influence how things unfold.

There’s a difference between wanting something and making something happen. With the mindset necessary to perform under pressure we are able to influence results more deeply. This mindset that relies on clarity, curiosity and a resilient spirit we accept no excuses, only results. Furthermore, it’s essential we have a system to evaluate the risk of any action, removing the very human emotions that cloud our judgment.

Walk with me. Together let’s examine options consciously and authentically to make choices that move us strategically toward where we want to be. Strategy is a about choices. Execution on these choices requires masterful performance. Furthermore, a well developed process allows us to enjoy the journey far more fully.

 

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Measuring Value is how to Bank Your Impact (BYI)

The Bank Your Impact (BYI) System is about both developing and embedding self-awareness. Furthermore, the benefits of expanded resilience, connections built on understanding the impact of belonging and an ability to bolster a professional and authentic presence are foundational. Perhaps more than the other two, developing a foundational resilience is critical to with standing that which moves us into burnout.