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What's the Score in your Business?
by Mike Paton

Imagine you are the coach of a football team. You’ve assembled a team of talented players, carefully scouted the opposition and have a solid game plan. 

You arrive at the stadium fully prepared and confident – this is a game you should win.

Now imagine that you are the only person on your team that can see the scoreboard. While the game is in progress, none of your players knows who’s winning and by how much. They can’t even see the time remaining or the down and distance without running over to the sidelines and conferring with you. How do you feel about your chances now?

Like great sports teams, great businesses often need more than the best players and a good game plan to compete at the highest level. They also need to run on relevant and useful information – not the feelings, personalities and egos that tend to drive a lot of entrepreneurial organizations.

Previous articles in this series introduced the Six Key Components TM of a well-run business and explored the Vision and People Components in detail. In this article, we’ll learn more about the third Key Component – Data.

While the coaching scenario described above may seem preposterous, it’s surprisingly similar to the way lots of companies operate. Many otherwise successful entrepreneurs don’t properly measure and use the data that will give them an absolute pulse on the business. As a result, they tend to toss and turn at night frequently - whenever things don’t “feel” right. They send frantice-mails at 2:00 am and talk with six people the next morning hoping to find out what’s really going on. At best, it’s a colossal waste of everyone’s time.

If you’re running your business based on the way things FEEL rather than the way things ARE, take the lead from great coaches and follow these four steps:

 

  • Make sure every member of your team knows exactly what “winning the game” means. What are your company’s goals? Unless they know what success looks like, employees are like football players that can’t see the scoreboard or the end zone. At best, they’re just following your instructions and going through the motions. 

  • Keep an absolute pulse on the business by developing a great Company Scorecard. Measure 5-15 weekly numbers that tell you precisely what’s on track and what’s not throughout the company. Choosing predictive indicators rather than historical numbers and watching your data weekly helps you see problems develop and make adjustments before it gets too late in the game (or fiscal year). Waiting until August to turn around disappointing sales numbers is like adjusting your game plan when you’re already trailing 42-0.

  • Using your Company Scorecard as a guide, develop Departmental Scorecards that give each leader in your organization a clear picture of what’s working and not working in his or her department. On a football team, for example, you might have offensive, defensive and special teams Scorecards at the next level of management, further supported by Scorecards for linemen, running backs, receivers, linebackers, and defensive backs.

  • Have every team member own at least one number – we call them Measurables – that ties directly to departmental and company scorecards. When everyone is accountable for keeping at least one Measurable on track each week – three things happen. Everyone feels personally connected to your vision, your specific expectations become crystal clear, and your team stops relying so heavily on you to tell them what to do and how well they’re doing.

 

Like a great football team, companies that are strong in the Data Component always know exactly where they stand. The game plan is crystal clear and every player knows exactly what he or she needs to do to help the team win. When numbers are off track, individual team members often make adjustments themselves to get them back on track. That creates ease of management and peace of mind. Leaders of these organizations get better results, deal with fewer people problems and sleep better at night.
 
Perhaps that’s why so many of the world’s best coaches are often the calmest. When the game is on the line and time is running out, these leaders leave the pacing, fingernail chewing and frantic exhortations to others. They remain calm because they know the tough work was done long ago – finding the right players, creating a clear game plan, and building a mechanism that gives each player the tools and information needed to do the job well, adjust when necessary, and help the team win every game. The rest of the story is told on the field and in the numbers.
 
If you’re losing too many games or working way too hard when you win them, ask yourself how well your players can see the scoreboard. You might find that a little clarity and a handful of numbers will go a very long way. 
 
About the Author
Mike Paton has been helping entrepreneurs get more of what they want from their companies for more than 20 years. He works with owners and leadership teams to implement the Entrepreneurial Operating System®(EOS®), a proven process for clarifying, simplifying and achieving success in growth-oriented organizations. Learn more at www.eosprocess.com or contact Mike directly – This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .   
 
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