I live in a world where people are always trying to justify their actions through a nice presentation of numbers that always seem to paint the story that they are awesome. Everything is awesome. Everything is great. See my powerpoint, see this graph, the line is up to the right, so I am awesome.
Reminds me of when I worked at a movie theater. Sometimes I had to work concessions, my least favorite job. I remember the days when the movie called “the doctor” came out. Total chick flick. I think it was about egotist doctor who gets cancer and suddenly become a nice guy. There is a romance involved. I remember working concessions on opening day. A line of women waiting all ordering the same thing. Large popcorn, extra extra butter please. Make sure you put the butter on half way full then again after it is full. No, a little more please. Also, I want a pack of redvines, reeses pieces, and peanut M&Ms. Can you mix the candy into the popcorn please? Sure, ma’am, full service concessions booth here. Would you like anything to drink? Yes, please, a large diet coke. I was thinking in my mind, honey, the diet is not working. The results are pretty clear that your eating habits are not getting you where you want to go. Time for a change.
They hypocrisy of extra butter washed down with a diet coke aside, this story reminds me to focus on the ultimate metric. The actual results. I can swear my services sales is awesome because my customer sat metric is stellar, but if I only have 2 customers then that does not make sense. It is important to know the ultimate metric and to stay focused on it. We tend to focus on meaningless metrics to avoid the real question – why are we not getting the results that we really want?
It takes a real honest look at yourself, your business, your life to focus on the real results. If you are in sales, for example, are you earning the money you want? That is the ultimate metric. All excuses aside, it is what it is. In everything you do there is ALWAYS one metric that matters the most. What is your metric?
Guy Reams
