There are two things every sports team has: knowledge of the points scored during the game and knowledge, if not sense, of the performance of each player.
Translated for your business:
- A dashboard of your business goals – these are your points of the game
- Player scorecards – this identifies and tracks the outcomes of the players in your business
You need goals for your business. However, please realize these goals represent the actions and decisions of the business. Goals are not outcomes. Goals reflect the result of outcomes.
A common definition of goals and one that I support:
A business goal is an endpoint, accomplishment or target an organization wants to achieve in the short term or long term. Business goals can take many different forms and be aspirational or motivational, such as driving an organization toward a certain objective like improved customer service. They can also have very specific objectives, such as reaching a particular revenue target, net income, profit margin, profit goal or other financial milestone.
Outcomes are the benefits or services each employee delivers directly to your customers or provides to support the business. The results of employee outcomes can be seen in your goals. Much like your team scoring a goal or scoring a touchdown is reflected in the score of the game.
Every role in your business must have three to four outcomes identified. These outcomes are what you are paying your employees to deliver. And yes, your employees will have extra responsibilities, but these are not the outcomes of their role. Many job descriptions, get this point wrong. They will state a long list of responsibilities, but not the outcomes. This is a problem. We’ll discuss this in a future blog.
As a call to action:
How well are you letting your organization know the score of the game? You may be uncomfortable sharing actual numbers, and I get that, but your employees need some sort of indication of whether the business is winning or losing the game. Figure this out and start reporting the information out. Every business will have a different cadence. Some information should be reported daily and some weekly. It is a rare situation that you will report information out monthly, but it does happen. The additional question, what information on the scoreboard will keep your team motivated or incentivized? Additionally, think about your key goals, like revenue. For instance, what needs to happen in your business for revenue to be realized? What outcomes must occur in marketing, sales, operations and finance to get revenue? These are some of the vital outcomes for your business. Think about these and start to understand how paying attention to employee delivery on these outcomes will improve your business.
