Greater than KPI

In this column, we have been striving very hard to guide business leaders on how to stay above and ahead in the present challenging and complex business environment.

Business leaders should navigate the marketplace for sustainable profitability with scenario planning. Build agile organisations and solve problems with genuine authenticity (tailor-made solutions). Context must be fully grasped and “skillfully” analysed. The “one-size-fits-all” is no longer delivering solutions. Business environment today is no longer linear. A step-by-step logical approach will not deliver expectations.

Beneficial value should be delivered in an authentic box. Understand your customers and work with the golden rule of leadership. That is, the timeless principle that “to retain employees and foster long term success, you must trust employees as well as foster a culture of mutual respect and collaboration.”

The golden rule of leadership is not just an ethical or moral guideline but a strategic imperative for sustainable business success. Loyalty must thrive in the workplace in order to ensure strong and committed relationship with the team. There must be “seamless operational symphony” in order to optimise performance. All aspects of the organisation must work in concert and must be strategically and effectively aligned with the purpose of the business. Leaders must align strategy, perspectives, processes, tools, technology and employees.

Team success can be achieved by the “power of trust.” Trust is the invisible force that holds teams together and the bedrock of effective leadership. Trust is pivotal to fostering “very best” contributions from employees. It guarantees psychological safety and refreshes with a sense of security.

How do we build trust? It is through openness and face-to-face communication. Leaders must put in place a culture of shared success, sincere, healthy and consistent collaboration that is not tainted by “second-guessing colleagues’ intentions” or micro-managing them.

As I pointed out earlier, we can successfully navigate enduring profitability in scenario planning. Steve McCrone, visionary strategist and well-known innovation expert, told us that an adaptive strategy is an essential and reliable tool for scenario planning.

Steve explained that there must be value-delivering authenticity in problem-solving and management techniques. This will guarantee high utility solutions. He described this strategic tool as “innovation in its highly beneficial value-creating form.”

The take-out from the reality of today is that achieving goals through high performing teams is not just about numbers (it is greater than KPI). Not just that assumption that if key results conform with the metrics of being “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-based,” then we can go to sleep.

It is definitely not just about the “end results and metrics.” We must (in these challenging times) also manage actions that will deliver desirable results. This is known as KPAs or Key Performance Actions. Objectives must be strategically managed to deliver impact and expected outcomes to the business.

Let us examine this for example, in the seemingly simple objective of desire for successful “customer success.” Do you know that this objective requires lots of strategically managed actions? It begins with salespeople dutifully carrying out their responsibilities as “seeds, spears and smart marketing experts” (SSS). Also, they must be “See, Feel and Perceive (SFP) customers. Then ROR and LB, the organisation must fully cultivate the dividends of Return on Relationship and Loyalty Building. Also, VRF, utilising Value Roadmap, feed backs and customer reviews online and on sight. There is also CPV (building customer value from honest, regular and organic feedbacks, both formal and informal). We also have WOL (Word of Mouth Loop) and S-in-S (Service in customer service) as well as SBOs. Reviewing emerging business opportunities regularly against milestones.

KPIs with other measurement methods when efficiently aligned definitely helps with managing success factors, objectives, key results and balanced scorecards. KPIs provide the planning pyramid to enable us monitor levels of performance that constitute success. But as I have explained, in this new dispensation business leaders need more than KPIs.

Google, a data-driven organisation, convinced that it was not all about numbers, commissioned a study on the “mathematics of what creates outstanding teams.” The results are very instructive.

Number one, employees must be highly dependable. Every employee must be “primed” to deliver at his best. He must fully “pull his weight” because “if one person is not pulling his weight, it impacts other team members and thereby becomes a systemic problem.” The one who is not performing well lowers the standards and expectations of others.

Number two, to enable employees deliver at their best, there must be “clear rules, roles and goals.” Lack of clarity on these items, creates ripple effects on the team, organisation and even beyond. It erodes employee’s faith in the organisation and creates apprehension about his future.

The report says leaders must promote employees’ sense of significance, fulfilment, commitment and dedication. Every employee must be convinced that his responsibility has “meaning” and that “he has a personal stake in the common goal.”

Number three, there must be psychological safety. The report says, “feeling safe will make you show your true face, true colours and your best self.” The work environment must allow you to express yourself frankly and not be criticised, shut down or brushed aside.

Another recent study revealed that in order to emplace sales profitability, employee loyalty and overall business success, there must be “systems mapping for an innovative change of actions.” Organisations must “unpack behavioural complexities and consistently promote good ideas as well as regular opportunities for change. Leaders should diligently visualise actors, ‘“anti-progress effects.”

Let me conclude with an extract from a recent HBR survey. Do you know that 73 percent of workers have identified “micromanagement as the biggest workplace red flag?” Leaders should hold employees accountable by setting high expectations and clearly laid out plans with adequate logistical support but “must not bog down employees by second-guessing every move they make and end-up impeding progress.”

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