Measuring Results is the third step in the Make an Impact phase of the roadmap.
The AIM Leadership Roadmap helps leaders who have a new mandate, new team, or who need new ideas to lead with confidence, accelerate impact, and deliver results in their leadership role. In this article series, I’ll break down the steps you can take to inspire growth in your people and your organization and build your leadership legacy. Want all the info in one place right now? Jump to The Definitive Guide to Leading in a New Role.
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Today’s topic is Measure Results. Step 6 in the AIM Leadership Roadmap.
Measuring Results is the third step in the Make an Impact phase of the roadmap – with a focus on leading your team to develop a game plan then execute on game day and everyday.
Measuring results will help you go from best guesses to making informed decisions with the right information.
Here are three actions to achieve this:
- Identify Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – What are you aiming to achieve? That is the question to answer with your KPIs. I’ve worked on lots of projects and in lots of organizations that don’t have a clear direction of where they are going. This lack of direction makes aligning your team difficult because they don’t know what the priorities and goals are. Asking yourself, and your team, what are you trying to achieve and why are you aiming to achieve it, will set the stage for making the right decisions. Determining what you will measure and when – your KPIs – is a key conversation to have with your team.
- Develop Decision Processes – Once you have your KPIs established, these act as a lens for decision making. I often say, ‘you want your people to make decisions in alignment with the direction you want to go’. With KPIs they have the criteria to do so. People can ask themselves, or each other, questions like, Does this project align to a KPI or goal? How will this initiative contribute to what we are trying to achieve? Should we fund this activity to help achieve our goals? Another aspect of developing effective decision processes is to have the right people making the right decisions. I use the Decision Tree by Susan Scott for this. Decision making is a skill, and with the right KPIs, criteria, and processes, both individuals and teams can improve their decision-making effectiveness.
- Review Results – Where are we and what have we accomplished? Just as you would check a map to make sure you’re traveling the right route, you review your results against your goals or KPIs to determine if you’re making progress or need to adjust course. Did we do what we set out to do? If not, what pushed us off course? What do we need to focus on next to achieve our goals? This is where the Lessons Learned Conversation and the Status and Progress Conversation from my Talking Change with Jen and Rebecca podcast will be useful. Click the links to listen to the podcasts for each conversation. Reviewing results is a great opportunity to identify what is going well, what could be improved, and what you want to do differently going forward.
In the next article, when I move to Create the Movement phase of the roadmap, I’ll discuss how you can Enable Change.
Team Alignment Coaching and Workshops
Do you need to align your team around common goals, behaviours, and expectations? Find out more about my Team Alignment Coaching and Workshops. Working together will help you achieve the following outcomes:
- Set Direction – define purpose and strategy
- Innovate and Re-Invent – generate new ideas and solve problems
- Improve Decision Making – have the right people making the right decisions
- Build Team Cohesion – improve team dynamics and create a high performance culture
Connect with me today – jen@actionimpactmovement.com or book an intro call.