Make your own metrics and.... Take a bow (& a breather)

Published: Fri, 12/24/21

Dear ,

Welcome to this Christmas helping of "To Be Clear..." - the final refreshing sip of regular coaching clarity in your inbox for 2021!

Thanks for your responses to the last installment on progress and the power of unspoken assumptions at work. The winning phrase from the competition to describe the decade so far is "The Flooring Twenties" as in "...Just as we get used to/ adjust to massive changes, we're all knocked to the floor again by another major shock. It's totally disorientating and sometimes dispiriting but it's definitely building resilience!" Wise words from the winner, your prize is heading your way.

This final "To Be Clear..." of the year is about how to measure your progress in the year ahead as well as a quick word to all of you at the end of (another!) long year.

How do you measure up?

Image by William Warby on Unsplash

Last time, I mentioned that progress is a key pillar of my practice but how do you build clear and meaningful metrics that help you to measure your progress at work effectively? Well, as we head into a new year, here are some ideas for helping you to make and measure clear, sustainable progress at work through 2022:

In the corporate and startup world, metrics abound. Organisations set KPIs (key performance indicators) and OKRs (objectives and key results) which help them measure how they and their employees are doing. You might have personal experience of annual appraisals or more regular personal development reviews.

But whether you're working for others or running your own business, I would recommend setting your own KPIs (key professional indicators) to help you to measure your progress at work in ways which are meaningful to you. They don't have to be financial - although they can be. Make sure that they are things that matter to you in your work and that you (and others) would celebrate seeing progress in.

Your KPIs in the year ahead could be about learning to do something, developing a particular quality or mindset, doing more or less of something, feeling more confident in one area or becoming more competent in another, listening more to some voices and paying less attention to others.

The key question to help you track how you're doing is, "How would I and others know I was making progress?" Be specific.

Some tips and questions to help with that.

1. Set a timeframe. As I work through the ONION framework with clients, we take time to get clear on when specifically they'd like to see successful Outcomes - six months/ a year/ beyond that?

2. Set some clear, motivating, visible metrics. Avoid dry numbers which don't excite you and vague ideas on which will be impossible to check in (e.g. "be better", "improve at"). Instead, ask yourself "What would progress look like?" "What would progress feel like?", "What would I/ we be doing if we'd made progress in this area?", "What would I be more excited about or dread less?" "What would other involved people be saying about me/ the business if there were progress?" Then note these things down and make them the basis of your KPIs.

3. Decide how and how often you are going to check in on your progress and then set up a structure for doing that. You could set a weekly or monthly reminder on your phone, you could ask a trusted friend or colleague to check in with you with a specific question once a quarter and schedule a call or coffee to do that (you're buying!). With my clients, we have regular check-ins as we go and then often spend a chunk of time in our penultimate session reviewing overall progress against initial desired Outcomes.

Many of us are scared of being this clear on measuring progress in case we find we've made no progress or - worse still! - we're going backwards but the good news is that being intentional about progress turbocharges progress. I've found this to be true with myself and with my clients time and time again.

I think of one client who got a significant promotion ten months ahead of the target she set himself or another who grew the bottom line of his business by 30% in the time we worked together or an organisation I'm currently working with who have already rolled out a more equitable way of rewarding employees. Within just three and a half weeks of working with one founder, he told me that he had managed to achieve things for his business in those 25 days which he'd been intending to do for two years!

So, as you look to the year ahead, make your own metrics, check in on them and celebrate the (inevitable) progress you will make. Let me know how it goes!

Next, a personal year end message for all of you:

How can I thank you?

At the beginning of 2021, "To Be Clear..." didn't exist except in my head! In fact it arose out of a couple of different projects as well as a series of encouragements from my clients and my coach, the brilliant Kristen Walker.

A newsletter which no-one reads is just a slightly odd monologue so thank you all for reading and for all your encouraging responses. It's been wonderful to not just share ONION more widely but to share what I'm learning from my clients about the power of increased clarity at work. It's been brilliant (and fascinating) to see and hear from you what's resonated and the ways in which you've thought about and applied these ideas as well as recommending them and "To Be Clear..." to others. At a time of year where many of us are thinking about giving and receiving, I'm so grateful for what I've received from you.

You might have noticed from previous installments that one of my great convictions as I work with clients is that increased clarity at work not only allows you to deliver your work better but leaves you with time and headspace for the other parts of your life. "Know Where You Live", "When Saying 'Yes' is Saying 'No'" and "Relent when it's relentlessness" addressed this directly but I hope that as we approach Christmas and finish out the year, you make the most of any time off to rest, reflect and relax from all your hard work.

Where possible, at least for a few days, say "Yes" to rest, fun and those people and activities which mean the most to you and an implicit (if temporary!),"No" to everything else.

In the classic Christmas reading from the second chapter of Luke's gospel account of Jesus' life, an angel tells a group of initially terrified shepherds that, in announcing Jesus' birth, he brings "Good news of great joy...for all people". In the midst of all the blessings of food and family and friends, I'm going to take some time this Christmas to say, "Yes!" to that.

As I mentioned in the last issue, I'm looking forward to sharing new ideas and new projects with you in the new year - there's one in particular on which I would really value your input. But, in the meantime, many thanks again for all your support and thoughts, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. See you in 2022!

Wishing you a lovely Christmas and a clearer year ahead.

As ever,

Ranti

PS: Off the back of "Work to the unspoken", it's been a lot of fun to hear various people's thoughts on Succession (wasn't that series finale something?) - keep them coming!

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