A Key Performance Indicators (KPI) is a number (statistic, average, total) that identifies a key component of a person’s or group’s performance. KPIs are many times thought of as “big corporate nonsense” or something for the “numbers guys”. I didn’t believe in KPIs for a long time because I knew what I was doing and tracked my time on projects.. However, other than “great, I put in 55 hours this week,” I didn’t have anything else to say.
I did a lot of research on KPIs and finally came up with that it’s as a starting point. What’s one thing I can track that, if improved (up or down), would have positive impact on a company goal?”
A fairly simple question, but often hard to find an answer to. I start with the question, “What do I do well and how much time am I spending on that?” It was improve processes for me. I found that I was spending a lot of time helping people navigate existing processes or assisting by doing. I started to track how much time I was spending on improving what my team was doing. Questions for you might be “How much time do I spend on conference calls where I say nothing” or “How long does it take me to turn around requests?”
Your first pass does not need to be correct, but should be easy to track or better still, something that you are currently tracking. Let it go for a month without making any changes to what you are doing. I initially found that I was spending less than an hour a week making things more efficient.
Once you have your KPI, spend another month improving it. Do you need to spend less time or more time? Set a goal. Your goal should not be what you would have in a perfect world, but something that you can achieve. My goal was to average 2 hours/day on making things more efficient. You will be surprised to see what a difference this makes!
The important thing is to work on one KPI at a time when you start. Next, make your goal a little more ambitious. Keep repeating this, or if you are finding that it’s not quite what you need, pick another number. Once you get the hang of it you can move on to more numbers, but start slow. Focusing on one thing at a time will get you better faster.
Benjamin Franklin’s KPI’s – http://www.artofmanliness.com/2008/02/24/lessons-in-manliness-benjamin-franklins-pursuit-of-the-virtuous-life/
