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Measuring Progress Makes Your Goals Powerful

Throughout this book we discuss how building a resilient career and leading like a CEO require you to stay focused on your goals. Whether you’re framing major long-term objectives or simply making your plan for a productive week, how you actually articulate your goals can have an impact on your ability to reach them.

You might start with a general picture of what you want to accomplish. But from there, the way to make your goals truly useful is to decide precisely how you will record and evaluate your headway.

You may have heard about the importance of “measurable goals” more times than you can count. The basic idea is that, in order to keep moving toward your goals, you must come up with specific ways to gauge your progress. For example, if you’ve always wanted to write a book, a measurable goal could be to write a specific number of words per week. If your book will have about 60,000 words, and you write at least 1,000 words each week, you will come up with a draft manuscript in a little more than a year.

You’ll still make progress if you accomplish only a little at a time. As we discussed in Chapter 17, the action steps that move you forward might not be large—they could be as small as sugar grains—but eventually you will approach your target if you maintain a steady pace.

I’m sometimes surprised by talented professionals who resist the notion of quantifying their progress. Maybe the concept of metrics strikes them as time consuming, complicated, or boring? Or perhaps they think that some values just can’t be counted? If you’re reluctant to define your goals in measurable terms, consider these four points:

1) Measuring creates awareness. If you regularly count something, you tend to keep it in mind. So if you’re working on a new habit, coming up with a metric will help you to keep on the path. For example, many dieticians predict that if you’re trying to lose pounds, you’re more likely to stick to your diet if you consistently log your food, weigh yourself, and chart your weight. And it’s the same for organizations. In businesses, government units, and nonprofits, attention tends to focus on the things that get evaluated and recorded.

2) Quantity can lead to quality. When you regularly count your steps, you’re likely to take more of them. That’s the theory behind fitness tracking devices, like the one I use, the popular Fitbit. And the more you practice an activity, the better you may get at it. My favorite book about the power of practice is Geoff Colvin’s Talent is Overrated. Colvin examined research about “what really separates world-class performers from everybody else.” He concluded that great performers—whether in music, sports, or business—are the ones who practice intensely. Quantity doesn’t always produce quality, but often the more times you do something, the more you learn. And when learning is involved, quantity does lead to quality.

3) Measurement helps build self-control. “If you can measure it, you can manage it.” That quote is often attributed to management guru Peter Drucker, but his take on measurement in the workplace was actually more nuanced. In his great book Management, he wrote of the danger that measurement “could be used to control people from the outside and above—that is, to dominate them.” He suggested that the better use of measurement is to “make self-control possible.” Drucker thought metrics should be used by every manager “to appraise his own skill and performance and to work systematically on improving himself.”

4) Measurement can replace micromanagement. As a coach, I’ve encountered many situations where managers want to delegate but can’t seem to do it. Sometimes they hover annoyingly over a project because they want a better sense of how it’s going. But when the manager and the project leader are able to come up with the right metrics, suddenly the problem disappears. A good measurement and reporting system can create transparency. That makes it easier both to solve problems and to recognize progress. When you’re able to quantify and describe your accomplishments, it’s easier for your manager to let go of control.

Explore different types of data and metrics

At times people are slow to create a measurement system because it’s not obvious what should be counted. But whereas it’s not always easy to quantify the impact or value of your work, grappling with the selection of metrics can contribute to your ultimate success. Choosing your approach to keeping track requires you to ask important questions. The first step may be to break a large goal into smaller pieces. Then you’ll want to consider which factors actually matter.

Suppose your New Year’s resolution is to get to the office earlier. You start to build a picture by recording your daily arrival times. For two weeks you count how many minutes you arrive before or after the official nine o’clock start time. And then you begin to wonder: Why is it harder to be prompt on some days than on others? So you expand your log to note your bedtime, your hours of sleep, and whether you lay out your next day’s clothes before going to bed. You realize that the way to get to work before nine is to go to bed earlier, so you change your evening routine. You start getting out of the house sooner, and your commitment to reach work earlier is reinforced by that little ping of pride each morning when you record your arrival.

It can be useful to experiment a bit as you choose data to show how you’re doing. As you explore options, consider these three approaches to measuring progress toward your goals:

1) Measure progress toward actually completing the mission. Some goals can be framed in numerical terms, which make it easy to chart your achievements. Suppose, for example, that you want to raise your profile by energizing your blog. It’s a simple matter to set numerical targets, such as the number of posts you intend to publish during the next year.

2) Count important activities. Often, things that impact the completion of your mission are beyond your control. In that case, observe the things you can control. Determine which activities are most likely to contribute to your success and start measuring them. Let’s say your committee wants to raise money for a foundation, but a tough economy means that donors may give less. As you think about goals for committee members, identify their most important fundraising activities, like calling supporters and meeting with potential donors. A direct measurement approach would count output from the members’ efforts, like how much money they raise each month. But the measure that motivates your team could be one that gives credit for their actions—their inputs to the process—such as the number of people they call or visit.

3) Create capacity. Complex goals may require a phased approach to measurement. Often, you can’t start racking up actual results until you put the tools, systems, and resources in place. If your fundraising goal requires something substantial like creating a new task-force to raise the money, map the whole process and break it into stages. Perhaps your first stage will involve recruiting the task force members, and a key milestone will be the initial meeting. In the beginning of your work, the way you evaluate progress will be to monitor the capacity build-out. Once your structure is in place, you can shift to more direct measures of success, like the number of dollars being raised.

Your wishful thinking can turn into a tangible goal when you describe your target and start doing things to move you in that direction. Your goal becomes powerful when you begin to track the things that will help you make progress.