Taking the emotion out of work
It should be normal for people to end their workday knowing how they performed. It gives them the consistent feedback that reinforces the right activity, while giving the supervisor the ability to have objective performance discussions.
I am in pursuit of having every position in our company be able to have this daily feedback. We have recently adopted it with a certain role within the company, and within the first two weeks, we have made significant changes.
I will share an example of the sales since it is the easiest to explain in a blog post. Our sales team is measured based on revenue, number of clients invoiced, and types of services sold. We measure these three things because they are critical to our company’s health and growth.
Quick Notes
- Revenue by itself can be deceiving. If we only see that number, we may miss the risk associated with it if we do not know the number of clients that comprise that revenue (if it is one big client, rather than multiple smaller ones there may be a higher level of risk of those revenues).
- Number of clients ensures that the revenue is spread amongst multiple treasuries as well as creating more opportunities for growth. If we can continue to add new clients each month, while improving relationships with existing accounts, our company will grow.
- Types of items sold shows us opportunities to sell clients other services, creating opportunities for growth. It also shows us a level of risk with a client. If they are only buying one type of service, then decide to suspend all spending for that type of item, our revenues are more at risk. This provides insight to both growth and protection goals of the company.
How We Share It
- Everything is goal versus actual. This provides feedback without subjectivity.
- It is reported on daily, with weekly, monthly, and quarterly recaps. Providing the information in a timely fashion.
- They are reported side by side, so that management can show correlation of all numbers.
- The question asked when the numbers are missed is “How can I help you achieve your goals”. This is a much different discussion than discussing the fact that the numbers were missed – that is easy to see and does not require a discussion. That already happened. The only thing relevant to that is to learn how we were derailed and how can we get back on track. Autopsy without blame.
This type of approach can help your management team can manage without emotion.
