High Achieving Leaders Have A Balanced View

High achieving leaders are always scanning their environment. They step back to look at the big picture, and they dive into the details. They look at the past to learn from their experiences while planning for the future.

High-achieving leaders understand the value of seeing both the big picture and the details. Too many leaders work from a 10,000-foot perspective without having a detailed knowledge of their people or business. Although a high-level perspective is necessary for leadership success, it should be accompanied by an in-depth understanding of your employees and customers.

Before you can effectively adhere to your plans, you must understand the details and needs of your operation—your cost, profit and customer experience drivers. Leaders who make a habit of ignoring the little things find themselves ignoring the big things. Taking the time to really understand your business or your department from both perspectives help prevents blind spots for you and your team

Another way to balance your view is to look at both the past and the future. Every team has a variety of performance indicators. Leaders should understand the difference types of indicators, what they mean and, most importantly, how to balance them.

Consider a measurement continuum. The two ends of the continuum represent the two types of performance indicators. Lagging indicators are the results of your team’s past performance—they enable you to see if your plans worked as well as expected. Leading indicators are the drivers of your team’s future performance—they give you early warning signs of problems.

Many leaders only look at lagging indicators, typically financial ones. These lagging indicators are important to help you understand how you have performed in the past. However, they must be balanced with leading indicators such as employee and customer engagement that tell you how your team will perform in the future.

A singular focus on lagging indicators gives you little opportunity for corrective action if you drift off course. Effective leaders look a both the leading and lagging indicators.

This balanced view enables you to know what did happen and also indicate what will happen

As the captain of your ship, keep a balanced view of your team’s performance to increase your competence and adhere to your plans. Chart your course (High-level plan) and ensure the deck is clean (details). While on your journey, check the wake of your ship (lagging indicators) and keep an eye on the horizon ahead (leading indicators).

All the success!

Peter Mclees, Principal

P. S. Smart Development Inc. has an exceptional track record helping restaurants, stores and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

http://smartdevelopmentinc.com/