Lag and lead indicators...

This is the time of the year that whenever I bump into any of my "sales friends" I can't help but ask how they did last year — I specifically ask if they hit plan. The answer always falls into two categories; either an "enthusiastic yes" or a "sheepish no"... sometimes there is colour commentary and sometimes not, but ultimately the answer is simply yes or no (or in emotional terms, "happy or sad").

If you have ever been in a commercial function (particularly sales) the objective is simple — you are given a sales plan (or quota) for the year with an expectation that by the end of the year you will have achieved that plan (and many times there's an expectation to overachieve). If your plan is $1 M and your final sales are $1.1 M, then you are 110% of plan and a goddess; whereas if the year ends up at $.95 M, you are 95% of plan and there is no such divinity. This of course answers of the question "How did you do?" but it is an after the fact question (a lag indicator if you will), and not particularly helpful if you are in the middle of working to achieve your annual plan.

What you need is something to answer the question "How am I doing?" And this brings us to "Lead Indicators". Lead indicators ensure that when your lag indicator presents itself your status as superstar will be secure.

As the name suggests, a lead indicator is a measure that speaks to how you are tracking to achieve your goal, or in the case of the the sales example above, your sales plan. Lead indicators are those activities that if achieved are a good "indication" that you will be successful.  They can also help identify issues early so you have time to put new activities in place to help achieve your goal. 

When you think of lead indicators you are in effect asking yourself, "What needs to be done to achieve my plan (or goal)". By identify them in a measurable way you increase your probability of success — referring back to the sales example, some lead indicators to achieving plan could be:

• Connect with 20 current customers per week
• Identify and connect with 5 new customers per week
• Attend 1 trade show per month
• Find 3 new opportunities for your opportunity funnel per week
• Connect with 10 customers on Linked In per week
• Achieve your monthly plans

The key is to achieve the lead indicator targets; by achieving these measures there is a greater probability you will achieve your plan by the end of the year. And if you are falling short of your lead indicator targets? It's probably time to seriously look at how you are doing what you are doing.

Depending on the complexity of your goal (or business) the number of lead indicators can become large and hard to manage so it is important to identify what the key measures are to quickly determine how you are doing with respect to achieving your goal — these are affectionately called Key Performance Indicators. (KPIs). Many times you will find colourful "dashboards" that make it easy to see how you are doing at a glance.

I suspect most of my "sales friends" know this because it's part of the job, but it's important to realize that lead indicators apply to almost everything you want to accomplish —

Wanna be a famous actor? What are the lead indicators that you will?

Wanna be a success artist? What are the lead indicators that you will?

Wanna be a CFO in a Fortune 500 company? What are the lead indicators that you will?

Wanna be happy? What are the lead indicators that you will?

Hopefully you get where I'm going with this...

iamgpe

Moments — the pithy quotes of Benjamin Franklin

I would be very surprised if there's anyone in North America over the age of twenty who hasn't heard the name Benjamin Franklin (probably applies to Europe to some degree as well). What I know of him is he was a businessman, a scientist, and one of the founding fathers of the United States of America — his legacy has influenced the past two hundred and seventy-five years.

It also seems he was rather prolific when it came to pithy quotes and I thought I'd share some of them. I will say I took these off of the Internet so their accuracy is suspect right from the start — they are still great quotes non the less.

"Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." 

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

"By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

"Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy."

"We are all born ignorant, but one must work hard to remain stupid."

"Well done is better than well said."

"Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man."

"Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning."

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."

Benjamin Franklin was born on January 17th, 1706, and if he were alive today he would be exactly two hundred and fifty-four years older than me. I think I will pick up a biography on Benjamin Franklin because there's still lots of time to influence the world.

iamgpe

Fulfillment, happiness, and reward...

The other day I was wandering around one of the local artisan boutiques in my neighbourhood and came across a young woman preparing for spring — with Christmas behind us the next big commercial event is SPRING, and as you know, the commercial machine is well oiled to sell us something. I suppose we do need somewhere to direct our tendencies.

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I could not help but take a moment to watch her put the final touches on what she was doing — I will admit it was visually stunning, and the positive energy that was coming from someone doing something they love was "palpable" (and infectious). As I watched, she caught my eye and smiled at me; she looked back to what she was doing and then bounded over to someone I can only assume was her boss. Their conversation seemed full of positive energy.

As I looked back at what she had done, I could not help but think that she definitely has talent, seems to very much love what she is doing, and has a long runway for success.

"Do something you love, get really, really good at it, and the money will follow"

I can't remember if I read this or if someone mentioned it, but it still resonates to this day. And I believe it to be true!

There is a self-awareness and an understanding of where your strengths lie that is needed — knowing what you are good at, and conversely what you are not so good at, is important. And just as important, the definition of your strength needs to be yours and not anyone else's (and most definitely not with what you see on the internet). HAVE THE SELF-AWARENESS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR STRENGTHS.

It should be pointed out, particularly if you are under thirty, that there is a big difference between being good at something and its other advanced iterations — great, elite, master, expert, best, number one... and the ever popular "best ever in the whole, wide, world". The advancement of good takes practice, work, continued development, coaching, more practice, more work and time... lots of time. WHEN YOU FIND YOUR STRENGTH, YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT PRACTICE, HARD WORK, AND TIME IS NEEDED TO GET REALLY, REALLY, REALLY GOOD.

Share what you are doing with people and discard the concept of perfect. Everything we do is an evolution from good to great. In fact, there is something to be said about watching your progress — it's motivating; not only for you but also for those who may be watching you. IF YOU WAIT FOR SOMETHING TO BE BULLET PROOF IT MAY NEVER GET DONE — GET YOURSELF STARTED, SHOW PEOPLE WHAT YOU CAN DO, AND KEEP DOING IT.

Get the most out of your strength — BUILD A BUSINESS, BE THE EXPERT PEOPLE WILL SEARCH OUT, OR FOR THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO LISTEN... TALK TO THEM.

And one more thing, if you leverage your strengths, do what you love, and the reward never comes the way you think it should, you still have fulfillment and happiness — and let me say that if you have this, you pretty well have everything.

I wonder where that young woman will take her talents over the next thirty years?

iamgpe

Bloggers note — when I sent the first draft of this blog to my daughter her response was, "Dad, that's not exactly what happened". To that I suggested it was artistic licence on my part. Her response was something about the integrity of information on the Internet. So in the spirit of not feeding "fake news" and staying a hero in my daughter's eyes, I will say the young woman is my daughter — I didn't watch her put the commercial merchandising display together or watch her bound over to her boss (although I was told her boss did like her work). The picture is real, and the thoughts on Fulfillment, happiness and reward" are mine. In the end, my position is I'm practicing my creative writing skills to tie all of this together.

What can I say, I'm a loving father — sue me.