After you (1) decide on an objective, and after you (2) decide on the starting route for the journey, you must (3) decide what measurements you will use to assess progress.  

A journey without measurements is a choice to be reactive and passive. No leadership required.

A journey with the wrong measurement system won’t take you where you should go. (Even if you’re sincerely wrong.)  

Possible measurement systems: 

Leadership Decision measurements 1 Leadership Decision measurements 2

Focus your measurement system(s) around what you choose to optimize for. You cannot optimize for everything simultaneously. Be wise about tradeoffs; when you optimize for X you must be content to not optimize for Y. Be especially careful about metrics for people, positions, skills – history has given us many examples where well-intentioned metrics for “success” were unhelpful. 

“Organizations are more reliable, more efficient and more professional when they’re operating on principles that are actually true.” – Seth Godin

Adam Kirk Smith
Glenn Brooke
25 Years in Retail, Restaurants & Hospitality · Author · Speaker · Coach

Adam spent 25 years in retail, restaurant, and hospitality leadership — managing teams of 60, growing a store from $600K to $2M+, and overseeing guest experience at a corporate level. Author of The Bravest You (endorsed by Seth Godin). Host of two podcasts. 170K monthly readers. Grimes, Iowa.

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