Companies and corporations are inherently number-driven entities. And frankly, a lot of people are very number-oriented as well, even if they aren’t giant data dorks like me. Numbers are how we measure and evaluate. They tell us things. The number of clients we have went up. The population of our city (or our household) changed. The time we spend in meetings every week is going up. The average price of a house went up. Numbers surround us.
And many of these numbers are viewed as good or bad.
- We saved money and came in below our forecasted budget? That’s a good thing, right?
- The commute to work is taking longer, and so it’s costing more money. That’s a bad thing.
- We had attrition within a small team? That’s a bad thing because the remaining people on the team have to work harder until a replacement is found, right?
- That pesky number on the scale changed… well, that’s good or bad depending on your point of view.
Generally speaking, these assumptions of good and bad are not incorrect. They are, after all, either a matter of opinion or tied into whatever your future vision is. However, as a leader in a business environment, you have to be mindful of whether they are obtained in a “healthy” or “unhealthy” way. Are the by-products of these end results good for the business overall?
Rather than relying simply on a number to tell you whether your team is doing well, you must analyze what influences that number and seek to understand the driving forces. You have to become comfortable asking uncomfortable questions and ensure that you consider tangential factors.
A common business example
Let’s take a look at a commonly reviewed number that is easily mislabeled as good or bad, and it’s something that every team faces… attrition. Let’s say a report is produced that says a team has had 50% attrition in the past year. At face value, this would likely be seen as a bad thing. After all, attrition means that resident knowledge is lost, there is a hiring & training cost to replace people, and the productivity of the team suffers during the replacement cycle.
To help provide context, management may consider the size of the team. Does 50% represent 2 out of 4 team members? Or does it represent 50 out of 100? They may consider how many people left on their own compared to how many were removed by the company. They may even consider how much workload is on the team and how many people are really needed (particularly with larger groups). Does this tell us if a 50% rate is a good thing or a bad thing?
This number may very well be “healthy” for the business, or it can indicate something is very “unhealthy” within the organization.
“Healthy” attrition, which seems contradictory, can actually occur if the people who were lost were less effective, divisive, or even a destructive force on the team. While no one enjoys having more work after the departure of a team member, removing a team member who has a negative impact on the team is healthier in the longer term. We have all seen those team members who instantly perk up when one of these destructive members are removed.
In contrast, that same attrition number could also be seen as unhealthy. When an organization loses hard workers, valued employees, or sees a sustained high turn-over rate, there is likely something fundamentally unhealthy within the business. It may be a clash of culture and values, a change in organizational priorities, or toxic team members.
Why we must look beyond numbers to see how our teams are doing
From a monetary perspective, having team members spend more time on revenue driving activities is good for profit. When we find ways to cut back on idle time, we are likely to find cost savings. However, we must always remember that people are not machines. They can break just as a machine can, but not always in predictable ways and the collateral damage can be wide-ranging and significant. So, while your productivity numbers may look good, are they actually “healthy”? Or are people pushing themselves to limits that are unscalable, unsustainable, or even downright hazardous? Of course, with employee productivity, this runs in reverse too. If you have too little work, and people are bored, you run into unhealthy behaviors as well!
Within every team there is a “sweet spot,” or rather a “sweet range” that fits between these extremes. As a leader, you find this balance of healthy / unhealthy by working closely with your teams. Talk with them to understand what works or doesn’t work in a process. Have those connection conversations so they are more comfortable bringing items to you that are causing stress and strain.
When you are presented with numbers, take time to ask questions and contemplate what the number itself doesn’t tell you. As you set metrics and goals for yourself and your team, be sure you evaluate what is achievable and realistic. There is nothing wrong with stretch goals, but you still want to keep them in the realm of the possible! And look at other mechanisms to evaluate the health of your business along with the numbers you find in the monthly report.
