KPI’s…

Despite teaching in a leadership institute, and coaching several high-level leaders, and leading a team engaged in several global projects, leading myself is hard.  

Identifying goals, building systems and structures, and tracking lead and lag measures all seem normal to me. However, knowing what's most essential and aiming the appropriate amount of time and energy at what's most important seems to be the biggest challenge for me, at least in this crazy season. I have used and taught tools like an Eisenhower Matrix to help prioritize time and tasks. I break my year into 12-week cycles and set goals accordingly. I identify big rocks on a weekly and daily basis, and I’m sitting here questioning whether I am aimed at the right targets.  

I spent several hours at the hospital yesterday with friends following a critical incident where a police officer was killed. My friends lost a friend, and the look in their eyes weighs heavy on me this morning.  

In his brilliant book Mindshift, Erwin Mcmanus describes the growth from childhood to adulthood, both physically/emotionally and spiritually, as moving from a focus on things to experiences to people. Children are concerned with things and will fight their friends for them. Adolescence is marked by a need for new experiences and accomplishments. Adolescents want to win. They want to succeed and be marked by it. A focus on people marks maturity.  

As I look over my current personal KPIs and think of the look in my friend’s eyes, I see the need to focus more of my focus on people...they are indeed what matters. 

Leaders....What matters the most to you?