“For the concept of ‘everyone has a number’ – it’s easier to see how that can apply to staff members in roles with clear measurables, even the receptionist example I see often. For some of my staff members like writers and graphic designers, it gets a lot more difficult to think of their ‘number,’ especially one that is meaningful. Do you have any tips or resources that could help?”
This was a question I was asked last week. Even when an organization has a good focus on monthly numbers and annual goals, with lots of attendant dashboards, it is often a challenge to drill down to simple numbers for the EOS Scorecard™
To give people maximum ability to make an impact, work backward to activities that can be tracked weekly and can move the dashboards. Note the emphasis on simple and practical!
Here are ideas this leader used to spur creativity on the numbers front:
- Ask the writers and designers to imagine that it’s Friday, and they have had a great, productive week they’re really proud of. What did they accomplish that made it great?
- Look at the 5 roles for their function (box) on the Accountability Chart; how are those measurable?
- Work backward from monthly departmental goals to ask, “where do I contribute?”
- Remember that the point of a number is to help clarify expectations. It is a way to help define and predict professional success.
- It might be something like a percentage of deadlines hit, research completed, or even a level of response to what was written/designed.
- I find scorecard numbers especially useful in areas I tend to want to avoid or “do last”. When I really nail that number, it gives me great forward motion!
And this is probably overkill but may generate some thoughts: https://www.spiderstrategies.com/kpi/
Happy hunting for those right numbers!
