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Glenn Mattson
Welcome to Building Blocks of Success. Have you ever been in a situation where you had a great idea and a lot of passion for it? This one was going to be it, right? Yeah. You were really behind something yet, the execution of it just didn't happen. Let's take a look at today and how to drive execution with plans that are called KPIs. Come join me on the building blocks of success.
Glenn Mattson
Hey, everyone, hope you're all doing well. Glenn Mattson here ready to dive into the topic of KPIs - the heartbeat of success in any venture: setting and tracking goals. Today, we're going to break it down in simple terms, and I've got some really good insights and hopefully some juicy facts to help you out. You know, the story where you have something you want to do, it can be long term could be short term, but you have an objective, you have a plan, we break those plans down. As you start to work towards the goal, you find yourself not necessarily on pace with where you're hoping to be. When you say to yourself, don't worry about it, don't worry about it, I’ve got plenty of time to make it up. Then all of a sudden, in the 11th hour you're doing everything humanly possible to get it done. Heck, if you look at most salespeople, they will procrastinate. They won't do what is necessary every day to fill their funnel. So, what happens over time is that many will be running towards the end zone or in line at the end of their fiscal year. Now, some do it each quarter, but almost everyone does it at the end of the year. So, the last two months or so, at the end of the year is when a lot of people will put a lot of time and energy in to get their quota to hit their numbers.
Glenn Mattson
I want to talk to you about why setting goals is like, I don't know, sails on a ship, right? I mean, have you ever heard of a KPI? KPI stands for key performance indicators, right? All these buzzwords that people use if you can figure out what the heck they're talking about. A KPI is really the North Star. You're in the middle of the ocean, there are stars everywhere from sea to sea, horizon, left to right, just unbelievable. Your KPIs are your North Stars, they're the ones that will help you understand where you're going, and that you're on track. Studies are going to show you that companies with clearly defined goals that are based on KPIs are 10 times more likely to succeed. Did you hear what I just said? 10 times more likely to succeed because they have KPIs. That's not an advantage. That's a game changer - 10 times. So, I want to share with you a little information about what a KPI is, how we do it, and what it looks like, etc., Okay? Again, studies are going to show you that companies and individuals that live by KPIs live by just processing to share with you. They're not a little more likely to, they're not a bit more likely to, but it's a whopping 90% more likely to achieve success than those that don't have KPIs. So hopefully, just those few statistics are going to share with you that you are crazy if you don't take some time and put together a powerful GPS in place. It's not about navigating blindly; it's not about saying I want to do X and then having no plan on getting there. That's just not smart, right? Now, I want to give you a guide to help you understand where you are, where you're going, and what you need to do to make sure you're getting there. It's a proven strategy, that regardless of your huge companies, or small companies, it works, and it works well. So let me jump into and dive deep into this current treasure chest of goal-setting tools and processes that I want to share with you.
Glenn Mattson
So, KPI, as we talked about is a key performance indicator. Now, the key performance indicator does three things for you and your organization. I'm going to tell you upfront that I’m very biased on KPIs. The reason I'm biased and KPIs is - one of the reasons I'm sharing with you in this outline today. You understand what a KPI is, it is the roadmap, it's your ways, it's your GPS, if you want that, that base is going to get you from where you are right now, to where you want to be with regards to your goals. So, if you want to get there, and you want to have what those goals are, you know, it's not giving it verbal commitment, but you're going to put something behind it. Remember, action always breaks paralysis. You’ve got to make sure that we put in some KPIs. So let me run you through a few things that I think are important when we're setting up KPIs. You understand what they are and how to do it. While we do it, and then give you some tips. Okay, now, remember, whatever it gets measured, gets managed. Make sure you write that down somewhere. Whatever you manage, whatever you measure, making sure that you measure it, when you measure something, it gets managed. So, let's take a look at how and what structure we can put in place for KPIs.
Glenn Mattson
Here are three things that I think KPIs do for you. Sure, there's more but for the big picture standpoint, here are the three. The first one is it provides targets for teams and individuals to shoot for. That gives us a place and destination to go towards. It also clearly outlines milestones on the way to the end result. The third thing is KPIs give you insights into really the people the process, what's working, and what's not working. So, it gives us an idea of where we're all going or pointing in the right direction. It gives us great insights into where we should be in terms of progress, and make sure we're on the same page, in the same location. In addition to that, it gives us insights into the people we have the following it, are they doing it? Do they have the skills for it? Is it bravery issues? Do we have the right process in place? So, KPIs truly help you improve what you have in place, and it does in a fantastic way. But again, you have to be somewhat objective about it. So, let's talk about the two different types of KPIs. You have a leading indicator and a lagging indicator. Make it super simple. A leading indicator some would say is it's the progress towards the end result. The easiest way I look at it is your leading indicators behavior, and when I dial a phone 15 times, I have to ask for five referrals. So those are leading. Now the lagging indicators? These are the results. How successful were you? What were the results or the outcomes? So, you could have a leading indicator as I have to dial a phone 20 times and ask for three referrals, for instance. You're lagging indicator could be the fact that you have to close X amount of dollars at the end of the week. Some people might have a leading indicator by the number of appointments you need to have per week. So leading, I always look at it and make it easy leading is the behavior or the actions you have to take to achieve the lagging indicators. Lagging indicators are your results. One begets the next. So, you have to realize both are important. By just tracking lagging indicators just by saying I want to make X amount of dollars next year, by saying I want to lose X weight doesn't mean anything. You’ve got to have a plan. You’ve got to have a behavioral plan in place that says these are the actions I'm going to do to get there. That's why most people don't hit their goals. They just throw a number out there and they have no plan, no behavior-based plan to get there. So, think about it for a second. You're going to have leading and lagging indicators that are broken down by a year, a quarter by month by a week by a day.
Glenn Mattson
So, by having these leading and lagging indicators, you have to realize one gets the other. Right? You're leading indicators create your lagging indicators. So, if you don't do your leading indicators, good luck, and your lagging indicators, you realize that half the time that we're out there, and we're coaching people, and we're coaching high executives, high-end producers, business owners, firm leaders, etc. And one of the things that we pride ourselves on is we have an exceedingly high success ratio, and our clients achieving their objectives. One of the reasons for that is we do something that we call a cookbook, which transforms personal goals into daily behaviors. So, if you want the goals, why would you procrastinate the behaviors, you want the goals, and it hurts, it's uncomfortable. Still going to get through it all, because you want the result. So, imagine every day if you knew you had to do, for instance, 10 dials a day. 50 a week, 200 a month. If you did that over a year, you know, you make $120,000. Yet, many of us know if we dial that phone, we'll get in front of enough people to make the money. But the conviction that you want the money means you have to have the conviction through the behavior, you can't have one without the other. See, one without the other is wanting it, but not willing to put in the work to get it. That's called hoping. So, I really, really like leading and lagging indicators.
Glenn Mattson
So, we're going to talk for a second about scorecards, but I want to give you an idea of what these do for you. If you think about it, you can't just say anything, I want to gain five pounds, right? I want to, I want to reduce my weight by five pounds, maybe you want to gain by five pounds. Maybe you want to run faster or run five miles? Well, you have to have a plan in place. So, what's the behavior you have to do to get to that five-mile marker to get there? Some of the things that I find that KPIs do for you, are the following: number one, they give you objective evidence on how you're doing. I can't tell you how many people sit in a room. They'll make a commitment, and say, Yeah, this makes sense. Yeah, let's do it, and they don't do a darn thing to get it done. So, you have to have an objective stance on this and look at it. It's amazing the number of details that you can get. So, the first thing is its objective in terms of the evidence, you did the lagging. Did you get the right did you do the things you should have been doing from a leading standpoint to get the lagging standpoints, etc.? The next thing is, did you measure the right stuff to make better decisions? Sometimes I find people will do KPIs, and they're really on the wrong stuff. So, make sure that what you're measuring is to help you make better decisions. Third, one is, I find KPIs point towards the company's priorities. The company's priority is growth, and the leading and lagging indicators are going to go toward that growth area. Maybe it's attaining, maybe it's expanding the current clients and attaining new clients, but there are leading and lagging indicators for sure. They all point toward the organization's priorities.
Glenn Mattson
The other thing that APIs do is track how performance has changed or not. Plenty of times I will be working with the business owner who asked me or one of my team members to go work with my manager to work with one of my people. When we start taking a look at what the goals are, they put together their leading lagging indicators and their behavior plan. Within a week, maybe 10 days, three weeks at the max, we start taking a look at the performance to say to ourselves if we don't have a bravery issue. A bravery issue is why you would maybe have some inconsistency with your leading and leading KPIs. If we can look at it objectively, we can track how performance has changed or not. So, when we're you're taking a look at, for instance, I have a client and as we were looking at the KPIs that he put in place, there was little commitment on his part to follow them up. But it was part of a team. There were six people in the room, and they all made the same commitments. So, he went along with it, but he did not have the commitment to do it, which means he had leading indicators but didn't have the commitment to do the activities. I also find that KPIs point to the things that matter. Are the deficiencies a compliance is it effectiveness? Is it your average case size, or is it to shorten your cycle? Is it onboarding quicker? So, what are the things that you're looking to improve on? So, its objective, it measures the right stuff and make sure that the organization points in the right direction. This is what I love the most right? It tracks how performance is doing and what needs to change.
Glenn Mattson
So, in my world, when I help people hit certain objectives, like for instance, some companies have something called a million and a million. That means that there are two different types of product lines, and I can hit in essence, a million dollars in each one, then very rare. Not many people can do one, never mind two. So those individuals always want to have the results which are the lagging indicators. One of the sweet spots that we have is we help those individuals achieve those objectives because we put together a behavioral plan. A behavioral plan is focused on the leading indicators. Yes, we're tracking the lagging indicators for sure. But you have to be ferocious with 00 excuses on why you're not doing your behavior in some businesses man it's really hard to make up a month if you miss one week never mind two weeks of behavior and how hard it is to make up a quarter if you missed a month even more difficult for many peoples to make up a year if you miss a quarter or even a month. So, consistency is key.
Glenn Mattson
So, the thing I want to share with you now is the scorecard. I love that the scorecard is in essence, what you what your leading indicators are and what your lagging indicators are. That is your GPS. You're driving down the road, and the GPS comes up and says there's an accident on 95. Take this exit and you'll save 35 minutes. We all say absolutely, we're taking that exit. It may also tell you that coming up, there's a lot of red and it's going to be a 15-minute delay. The scorecard tells you if you're making progress not making progress and why. So, the scorecard, I did mine every day, and some days it wasn't exciting because you weren't doing what you should have been doing. That's a choice to feel bad about it. You made the choice not to do it. So, you have to own it. The scorecards are amazing. The scorecard also tells you when you're doing it right. When you do it right, you do the behaviors over and over and over again, and you start to see the results. That's when the connection happens like oh my gosh, I can control at a certain level, the lagging indicators. I can control lagging indicators by controlling my leading indicators. So, I want you to think about a scorecard as it's almost like a superpower. Right? Studies have delved into the power of scorecards and they're going to tell you that the individuals who religiously use scorecards, they're not just a little more successful, they're not a little more efficient and effective. know they're 25% more likely to achieve their goals. That's not a little boost team. Come on, man they are 25% more likely to hit their goals if they just put them down in terms of daily scorecards every day, right? I always tell people we're near a bed and you're about to get out of bed. You're about to take your feet off the bed and hit them onto your bedroom floor. You should know when your feet hit the floor, exactly what you need to do that day. Behaviors, results, etc.
Glenn Mattson
Exactly what you need to do that day to achieve your leading and lagging indicators. At the end of the day, you go to bed, you put your feet from the floor back onto your bed. At that point, you should look up at your ceiling and say I did it. I did my leading, and I did my lagging. Right? I don't want you to think it's a chore. So, a scorecard isn’t used to beat you up. It's not a scorecard to say that, you know, you're not doing a good job. If that's the case, change your goals. A daily scorecard is a hell of a motivating tool. It gives you a clearer view of the progress you're making. So, I love scorecards. Teams do them, individuals do them on my team, and clients do them. So just think for a second that every action you take through the day, every choice that you're making, every behavior that you do is like a perfectly placed puzzle. It's contributing to the larger picture of your success.
Glenn Mattson
I love Harvard Business Review. Here's a study inside of Harvard Business Review that some are going to say it's a modest improvement, but I don't think it is. The individuals and companies that align daily activities with their goals, daily activities with their goals. 115% more likely to succeed. We're not talking a little bit; I'm not talking 50% 115%. That's a tad, statistically and that's staggering. So, if you want to achieve something, doesn't make a difference. If my wife is going to run a marathon, she's got to break those 26 miles down to how many shares to run per day, she's done it for six months, she has taken the time, the distance, the time she has to prepare, she breaks it all down to know what she has to run per day, which has to do from a balance standpoint, eating standpoint. That way, you're always on the same page. So, by the time it gets to game time, her marathon, she is fully prepared for that. How many of you, if you know what you want to do at the end of the year, you break it down by six months by three months, quarters, and you're going to bring it down by months, then you're going to bring it down by weeks, you're going to bring it back down by days you do your day you hit your week, you hit your week, you hit your month, hit your Monday hit your quarter. So, make sure that you have a scorecard or report card, or whatever term you want to use, it's not meant to be an authoritative-based scenario. It's meant to be as: Hey man if you want to get there, you want to get those results? These are the behaviors you have to do to get there and track both of them, track your behavior, which is leading, and then track your lagging, which is the results.
Glenn Mattson
Anyone who runs a business or manages people if you only run your business on lagging indicators, shame on you. Remember, lagging is the result. I want x by this time and then you leave. Never rely on your team to figure out how they're going to get to the grocery store help them that's part of the KPI so that if we have a yearlong process, I remember, you know my mentor, Mark, I had daily goals, I had weekly goals, I had monthly goals. I had a document every day that I would write down what my goals were, and I had to go into a scorecard. I had a monthly thermometer and a flip chart because I'm a visual person. So, we have something called circle squares and triangles. It's a visual representation of what something may mean. So, when I first got started, the circle was a small deal. The square was a medium and the triangle was large. I knew how many circles I had to do per month, how many squares I had to do per month, and how many triangles I had to do per month to hit my goal. I also know what the behavior is I had to do to get a circle versus a square or a triangle. So, I had my behaviors broken down for the types of clients I wanted to go after, and I was scoring them. When you do your behavior, man, it's pretty cool to see the grind that you do the time that you spend the sacrifice that you're making. To get better, you see the results, you see the work, then you see the results pretty awesome. I remember, pretty much every day, Mark would walk in, pop into my office, and say how’s it coming along with your pay time and no pay time. He’d also come in and say, hey, how are you coming along with the stuff you got to get done today, your behaviors? Mark had a three-by-five card on his computer. He put the same one on my computer. It had seven numbers on it. Those seven numbers were my leading and lagging indicators. He knew what they were, I knew what they were. Matter of fact, he called my wife when we first got married and told her what they were too. So, she knew whenever I came home from work, I better have gotten two new appointments in the book, I better have made X number of dials asked X number of referrals, and all the leading and lagging indicators. So, when you look at color coding, you're assuming the KPIs. KPIs are just amazing. I'm going to talk about color coding your calendar in a second, and our next podcast because that goes right in along with your KPIs.
Glenn Mattson
If you want an ideal workweek, you want to understand how to achieve your goals, you should know how many first appointments you need to have, how many second appointments you need to have, and how many recruiting calls you need to have. It's pure math, that math needs to be broken down into results and behavior. That's what your KPIs are. The next one I'm going to talk about is how to take those KPIs and convert them into colors. So, you have a color-coded calendar, and you're going to be shocked and how more successful you can be and how powerful it is with a lot less energy if you color-code your calendars.
Glenn Mattson
So, when we look at what we're doing with regard to these KPIs, you want to have the process and the mindset that if you make a goal, it's just not about the end result. It's about where you need to be in certain checkpoints to make sure that you're on track. Or, if you're not on track, what do you have to do from a pivot standpoint to get on track? So daily scorecards, a 25% increase in the individuals that align their behaviors with the results are 115% more successful. The numbers don't lie to you, they're all there. So, as we wrap up this exploration into the world of goal setting and tracking goals, remember it's not about setting goals just for the sake of doing it. It's about setting the right goals and then putting the right plan in place with your KPIs. Track them. Track your KPIs with tools, and your daily scorecard. Success is not a random thing. It's a destination and it's a journey that takes time. See you next time in the building blocks of success.
Glenn Mattson
This is the Building Blocks of Success with Glenn Mattson.
S1E8 with Glenn Mattson: Goals, Commitment and Accountability
S2E1 with Glenn Mattson: Basics of Behavior and Goal Setting