Week 23.31 Measure Delicious

I don't remember the first time I heard "measure what matters" or "what gets measured gets done," but it feels like business gospel. And when I think about how so much in business gets accomplished, reporting, earnings, growth targets, numbers, and measurements are on full display. Talking with Gene, my coach, this week reminded me that whenever I set a target, I may also be limiting my thinking about how far I can go. Might the target I set might be inadvertently restricting my potential? And while I am confident that there are many circumstances when goal setting is advised, and perhaps even imperative, I suspect there are many others in which they are ill-advised. For example, when growing tomatoes, the purveyors of produce measure size, color, firmness, and ripeness to create tomatoes that look perfect on the grocery store shelf. However, when a culinary combination of basil, olive oil, and tomatoes calls, our hearts invariably lean towards the quirky and misshapen heirloom variety. These non-conformists win the taste race, hands down. Here, 'delicious' defies the usual measurements. So, how do we measure delicious?

Similarly, consider a friend who is a natural people-person and loves topics like company culture. At the same time, he is driven to succeed and believes the best way to contribute to the company's growth is through a role in sales. But is the quantitative ease of measuring sales the correct yardstick for business success? There are less tangible but equally critical facets, like cultivating a robust and cohesive company culture, integral for impactful service delivery. This asks the crucial question: how does one measure the 'thickness' of such a culture?

‘Deliciousness’ isn't something you measure; it's something you experience. Delicious is a state of delight in which we have found something that pleases us. It's a personal state of delight that adapts and evolves over time and context. Ratings of 1 to 10 may vary widely, underscoring the subjective nature of deliciousness. A single tomato can traverse the taste spectrum from simple to complex when served alone, tossed with olive oil and salt, or transformed into a marinara sauce or shakshuka. It's the palate of the beholder that determines its deliciousness.

Measurements, then, only represent a fraction of the vast tapestry of our world. They provide a short-term and somewhat limiting perspective. Nature, for instance, does not abide by the rule of measurements. Our businesses, our companies, and our hierarchies are rooted in metrics and reports, and rightly so. One of the greatest CEOs, Alan Mulally, turned Ford Motor Company around using his system, the BPR, which established a reporting structure so everyone on the leadership team and the company knew how Ford was doing. But measurement was not the end; it was the means. Working Together was the ambition, and Working Together meant sharing information and helping everyone succeed. The goal, repeated frequently, was love and be loved in that order, and it applied to everyone: employees, customers, suppliers, and shareholders. Delicious. 

So, as we grow the 100 Coaches Agency, what do we want to measure? We want to know whether our employees are thriving in their work, doing what they love in their fullness. We want to support the coaches and thought leaders we engage with to be exposed to a diverse range of clients and enriched through varied conversations. We seek to ensure our clients have the success they truly want, supporting the flourishing of their families, companies, and themselves. We don't know how to measure these things - it is certainly not a target number. In life and leadership, we can support the flourishing of those we love and lead, and when we do, we all know what that feels like, tastes like, and looks like. That, to me, is the true and 'delicious' measure of success.

How to Regain Your Confidence and Recapture Your Mojo After a Setback by Todd Cherches

Our lives are constantly transformed by changes—both of our own making, and from outside forces. And, as the saying goes, we may not be able to control everything that happens to us, but—as difficult as it may be—we can control how we choose to react and respond. Even if you are an inherently confident person, when you suffer rejections or setbacks, it’s natural to lose that confidence, even temporarily. You can still feel this way in the case of a layoff, which isn’t "personal” (as opposed to being fired, which is personal…and I’ve experienced that firsthand, too). And when you are let go, you lose that comfortable support network of colleagues and the guidance of a boss; it’s common to have feelings of self-doubt, vulnerability, loneliness, isolation, and fear.

If or when you lose your confidence after a setback, the key to resilience and success is not to pretend that it didn’t happen or to keep beating yourself up over it...but to acknowledge that it’s a normal and natural part of work and life and that you will succeed again if you stay positive, learn from your experience, and keep moving ever-forward.

Driven Leader Without Burning Out by Lisa Earle McLeod and Elizabeth Lotardo

The idea of servant leadership — putting your team’s needs ahead of your own — brought us to a more compassionate, human-centered work environment. But in today’s environment, it’s a recipe for burnout. Instead, the authors suggest a more impact-driven philosophy called “noble-purpose leadership,” that ties leaders and teammates to the pursuit of a shared goal that positively impacts constituents. In servant leadership, the message is: You’re in your role to serve others, making it tempting to focus on pleasing others and difficult to say no. In noble-purpose leadership, the message is: You’re in your role to make an impact. This requires more strategic thinking in terms of where to place your efforts. The authors offer three areas where managers can shift their lens to noble-purpose leadership.

World-Class Teams Accept Their Teammates As Their Coach — Here’s How It Works by Keith Ferrazzi

We expect so much of leaders but ask so little of the assembled talent and combined intelligence in the team of peers around us. There’s no better example than development. An unintended consequence of the cycle of streamlining and restructuring of our organizations is the creation of an environment where leaders have too little time to coach their teams. Yet we all know from the world of elite sports that great coaching adds an extra dimension to even the greatest teams. Research shows that the right coach in the NBA adds 30% to team performance or is worth 14 extra wins a season. World-class teams in business go higher together, they don’t wait for their leader to try to find time in an already overcrowded schedule. These high-performing teams agree to a new kind of social contract—an agreement of values and behaviors—that commits them to be accountable to each other as peers rather than the traditional model of hub-and-spoke accountability to the leader. As part of that shift to a peer-to-peer social contract, they invite each other to openly give one another developmental feedback on competencies and skills in the service of each other’s growth. World-class teams know they need to get at least 30% better, not just incremental improvement. It's about being the best-in-class CFO, not just a good CFO; a best-in-class CIO, CHRO, CMO and so on. This shift is an awakening to co-development: accepting our teammates as our coaches.

With love, gratitude and wonder. Scott