What would you measure, if you could?

My career so far has been focused on specialising in what many people think of as ‘fluffy’ stuff. It’s all pretty difficult to measure.

Here’s a mish-mash of conversations that I’ve had many times, bundled together for dramatic effect…

You studied psychology? - Yes.

And that counts as science does it? - Yep.

But you don’t work in a lab, wear a white coat, or do ‘experiments’ every day? - No, I aim to understand how people think, learn and behave in workplace situations.

Hmmm, I’m not sure about that. But you work in training? - Yes.

Oh yeah I’ve done a health and safety course. - Ah that’s a little different to what I do… leadership development, helping people to be the best leaders and managers they can be.

Oh, I get it, team-building, climbing trees and building rafts, yeah? - Nope, more about communication, emotional intelligence, handling change and generally having more of a people focus.

Nah, you’ve lost me, we don’t so stuff like that, no time for it. - Hmmmm. Have you ever had a crap boss?

Oh yeah! Of course! Hasn’t everyone? - How about if that person communicated a little more clearly, understood the emotions and reactions of themselves and others a little better, could better deal with (and support you through) changes in the business, and genuinely cared more about people than profits? Think that might have helped?

Well yeah, that’s obvious… I probably would have worked harder / cared more / not left the business if my boss was like that.

Now you get it.

The things that are hard to measure, make a difference to real people. And surely an organisation is just a collection of people, so let's focus on them.

Measuring ‘success’ is seen as pretty straightforward in many organisations – whether that be profits, share price, growth, contracts won, sales completed, calls made, customer served, toilets cleaned, or productivity in terms of making x number of thingamabobs every day.

Measuring the success of leadership development is often then explored in these terms too. If we develop our leaders, will our profits go up? Will people be more engaged and be more productive? Will our staff stop leaving and therefore reduce our recruitment costs?

Well, nobody can guarantee any of those things, there are far too many other factors which could influence them. However, it’s estimated that up to 80% of staff turnover can be attributed to factors within their manager’s control*, so imagine you start keeping your best people for a little longer and the organisation was a place that people are proud to be from** based on the way they are valued and managed.

I think that’d be a pretty good start to achieving any metric you choose to measure.

So, what would I measure if I could?

I would have a gadget that I could point at somebody’s forehead which tells me an absolutely certain non-fluffy score (out of 100?) of how much they value other people.

Putting people with a high score on that measure into leadership positions would undoubtedly make the world of work a better place to be in – people would have leaders they wanted to work for, that cared about them, supported them and ultimately helped them to perform to their very best. Your organisation would be somewhere you were proud to be from.

But until I invent that gadget, I’ll just carry on doing the ‘fluffy’ stuff.

What would you measure if you could?

*(from Marcus Buckingham’s book ‘First, Break All the Rules’)

**(concept from Patty McCord’s book ‘Powerful’)