Measures of Success

What happens to a business or life when you change the measure of success?

When I was establishing my business, I struck upon targets that defined success for me. This was not a simple task and required a fair amount of soul-searching. I set goals for 6 months, 12 months and 36 months. The timeline was a bit loose, but I knew that I would be able to achieve the 6 month target; I figured that I would be able to achieve the 12 month target; and I had no idea how I would achieve the 36 month target, but it would come. I was not wedded to the timeline; in fact, I was not at all sure that the targets were achievable in those timeframes. Nonetheless, I wrote down the targets; I shared them with people central to the business. I was on my way.

The targets were defined in terms of business revenue – money. Yet, whether I talked with people about what I was doing, I frequently commented that the money was not that important. More than one close friend challenged me, “is money why you’re doing this?” The answer was no, but the money represented a level of achievement; and so, I continued on my merry way; noticing that as the money did not flow, I was feeling disappointment and dissatisfaction, rather than relishing the success I was achieving.

One of the advantages of having a coach is that they do not let inconsistencies pass, at least not for long. My coach challenged me to consider whether there were other possible measures of success that better aligned with why I am in this business. As all good coaching questions are, this was thought provoking. If I attest to having defined why I am here – my purpose in life – and it does not have any emphasis on money, why is that the measure of success for my business?

Looking at what I gain from this business besides revenue, it is the satisfaction and joy of helping people; of being a part of people improving their lives. It was easy then to restate the goals around the number of people I can help through my coaching.

Which leads us back to the question, “what happens to a business or life when you change the measure of success?” In this case, the focus shifted from an uncontrollable outcome (the revenue) to controllable events. The focus shifts from the outcome to the process (and the former statistician in me says “duh!”). Let us get more concrete. A trial session may not result in immediate or any revenue, but it does help someone if I have done my job well. The trial session that does not convert to a paying client is a small part of my success; rather than a $0 income failure. And that session may lead to a coaching agreement in the future. The blogs and newsletter do not generate any revenue, but they do, I hope, help someone.

Ah, but the businessperson says, that is fine, but you need to make money; it is an important measure. Well, like the manufacturing or quality engineer, perhaps what I need to do is to trust in the process. The process says that I need to establish a fair price for my work. The process says that I need to develop credibility and a base level of clients that can lead to subsequent referrals. The process says I need to have a structure for getting, conducting and following up from trial sessions. The process says I need to have structures around the coaching practice. If I succeed in the processes, can I trust the outcome (eventually money) will follow?

Only time will tell. In the meantime, it is much more fulfilling to look at every step as a success; to evaluate the business building in terms of helping people improve lives, rather than how much money I made today.

Do you have any examples where changes in your measures of success had an impact in the conduct of your business or life?

Testing the Glass Cliff

In their paper The Glass Cliff, Ryan and Haslam dubbed a new term to describe yet-another challenge facing women in leadership positions. That is, according to the subtitle of the article, that there is “evidence that women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions”.

Perhaps because I left Corporate America in mid 2005, I missed the news furor over this research. Lost in the wilds of Shanghai, it came to my attention through the weekly Buzzwords column of The Shanghai Daily (Monday, 22 January 1997) where there is a valiant attempt “to improve the English rendering of new Chinese phrases or terms”; in this case, boli xuanya (玻璃悬崖).

Researching the phrase, I stumbled across the traditional “glass ceiling” and the newer “glass escalator” (for the men), in addition to numerous news report on the glass cliff phenomenon. As the news would have us interpret the research, once women succeed in breaking through the glass ceiling, they face a greater likelihood then men of gaining a position with a high risk of failure, and highly visible failure at that.

Ryan and Haslam are to be congratulated for going beyond the existing published work with more detailed analyses. However, it does pay to look beyond the news reports to the actual research paper and recognize the limits of research. The abstract itself is clear on limiting the conclusions.

“This hypothesis was investigated in an archival study examining the performance of FTSE 100 companies before and after the appointment of a male or female board member. The study revealed that during a period of overall stock-market decline those companies who appointed women to their boards were more likely to have experienced consistently bad performance in the preceding five months than those who appointed men.”

The analysis was based on 31 companies covering appointments of 15 women and 16 men to the board. The metric was the change in monthly share price for 5 months prior to appointment and 3 months post appointment. In addition to looking for seasonal variation associated with stock prices, Ryan and Haslam looked for linear, quadratic, cubic, fourth-, fifth-, sixth- and seventh-order effects on the relative monthly performance. Not surprisingly, they found some significant effects – namely a seventh-order three-way interaction and a cubic trend. We are then to conclude from all of this that there is some form of causality between the appointment of women to boards and recent stock-price performance. Or perhaps we should conclude that if you dig deep enough into any set of data, you will find some correlation?

Are we meant to conclude that women, once they’ve shattered the class ceiling, are likely to get stuck into challenging, high visibility, high risk positions? While I firmly believe women face many challenges in business, an exhaustive data analysis of the stock price variability before and after the appointment of 15 women to corporate boards does not provide scientific evidence of a new phenomenon. Women face sufficient work force challenges without the news media creating more with the latest buzzwords.


Questions: Do you have evidence of a glass cliff? Do you believe there is a glass cliff? Or a glass escalator? Conventional wisdom says to go for the high-risk and/or high-visibility position if you are seeking higher level positions, regardless of gender. Do you believe this is correct?



Ryan, Michelle, K. and S. Alexander Haslam
The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions

Writing Your Own Performance Review

Performance review time – potentially one of the least desired events of the work year. Your experiences could range from receiving seemingly arbitrary comments, vacuous praise, a sense that your manager hates this more than you do, to comments on a job well done and even the (occasional) useful comment.

Can you make this a better experience for yourself and your manager? Can you prepare? Yes to the latter, you can certainly prepare, and even better, develop your review throughout the year. The answer to the first is that it cannot hurt to try, even if you have the most difficult manager imaginable.

Learn everything you can about the review process. What is the corporate policy on reviews? Does your division or organization implement the policy in a specific way? How do the reviews influence the individual’s compensation? Is there an overall summary, for example, a letter or ranking? If there is a summary, is it completely at the discretion of the manager, done by a management team, or based on some form of forced ranking? How are the rankings linked to overall corporate, division or group performance?

Understand your boss’s objectives and beliefs. Is he doing this to check off a box? Does she want to present her employees in the best possible light to others? Is he truly interested in your development? Does she have a hidden agenda? Does he believe that performance reviews are primarily for the benefit of the organization or for your development? Is there any political benefit to your manager for investing her time in this process? What is the political payoff to your manager for over-evaluating or under-evaluating his team?

Gather the relevant information. Throughout the year, keep files of accomplishments ranging from completed project plans, letters of acknowledgment, notes from phone calls. Gather your position description, the goal/objective document for the current year, last year’s performance review, mid-year reviews, and desired competencies for your job (or the one you aspire to).

Put yourself in the shoes of management. What results and contribution was management looking for from you this year? What did you do that contributed to your boss’s reputation? What behavior was your boss looking for from you (e.g., cooperation, team leadership, delivery of results, innovation, compliance)? Did you solve or cause any political problems in the organization?

Write it up. Write it up, that is, from the perspective of the boss – what did you do for him and his organization this year? For format, think about how your boss likes to receive information – does she want all of the gory details? Is he swayed by evidence? Does she want just the facts? Is he interested in shared credit? Put aside your natural style, and provide a review for your boss based on her style. Focus attention on your contributions, your strengths, and how they aligned with the organization’s and your boss’s objectives.

Meet with your manager. Ideally, your manager will use your performance review to acknowledge your contributions and strengths. She will give you a few helpful suggestions for the next year, and then move onto how to build success. Unfortunately, performance reviews are rarely ideal. If you have done your homework, you should be able to anticipate the mood of the meeting. Check your emotions at the door and listen carefully. Listen for the acknowledgments of contributions and strengths. Listen for the suggestions and criticisms – don’t argue – take these away and try to learn what the message is. Listen for the underlying beliefs and needs of your boss. What behaviors and contributions is he looking for from you?

Debrief. Review the meeting as objectively as possible. Quiet your internal voice that agrees or disagrees with comments made and try to note the words and tone used. Once again, look at the world through your boss’s eyes and needs – what did he get from you and what does he need from you? What pressures is she under that led her to these conclusions? What beliefs, values and motivations drive him that you might or might not hold?

Some systems allow, or even encourage responding to written performance reviews. If you believe your performance review is unfair, carefully evaluate whether the issue is a matter of degree, whether there is some basis for the comment, whether there are any political motivations, and whether you have clear evidence supporting your position. If you believe after careful consideration that you have a case, meet with your reviewer and present any counter-evidence you have not previously provided. If the review stands (remembering that the boss usually wins), consider whether it is you are in the right job.

In the best possible world, performance reviews provide you an opportunity to review your contributions, calibrate your understanding of expectations, receive affirmation of your strengths, and learn about how to contribute even more in the next year. More likely, you need to be doing your best to influence opinion throughout the year. Remember that the more you can see the world through the eyes of your boss, the more likely you are to be able to meet her expectations.

References and Additional Resources:

Heskett, Jim, What’s to be Done About Performance Reviews – HBS Working Knowledge , November 27, 2006.

Murray, Joanne, Effective Performance Reviews – Management Career Advice from Monster.com

McKay, Diane Rosenberg, Performance Reviews – How to Prepare for a Performance Review and What to Do if You Get a Bad One

Copyright 2007 Sherry L. Read, All Rights Reserved

Faster Than the Current

“You know about boats. You can’t steer if you’re not going faster than the current. If you’re not under your own steam then yer just debris, stuff floating.”

Tim Winton, Cloudstreet

Change is so difficult. You first must decide the direction to head and then overcome inertia. It is frightening; for with each change comes the loss of some things and the gain of others. The unknowns – “is this the right thing to do”, “what if I fail” – can easily grow out of proportion with the possible outcomes. Finally, if inertia has not kept you in place, habits often draw you back.

The reality is that the world is changing. Our bodies are aging. Our jobs are redefined in response to the latest quarterly earnings report. Our boss moves on and the focus shifts. Our companies are bought or sold. Our friends, as well, see their lives changes. The needs of our children change from year-to-year, if not day-to-day. The world around us whether weather, technology, the latest war, medical advances, moves forward at in inexorable pace. Isaac Asimov said, “It is change, continuing change, inevitable change that is the dominant factor in society today.” The current of change is tremendous.

Perhaps it becomes important when contemplating change to consider the current. “If you’re not under your own steam then yer just debris, stuff floating.” When we stick with the safety of inertia, we’re just drifting, floating like some debris. Only when we’re under our own power, we will be able to manage the change and have some level of control.

If you have been drifting along with the current of change, gaining control of the boat may take some time. Asking yourself to define your passion and deciding where and how you want to live all at once may be too much.

Begin with just a few questions:
1. What adjectives would like used to describe you? Examples might be: caring, compassionate, professional, successful, creative, powerful, trustworthy.

2. As you look at the elements of a Wheel of Life, over the next few years, where do want to place your emphasis?

3. If your life were to come to an abrupt end in 5 years, you were described by your answers to question 1, and had accomplished much in the areas of life you emphasized in question 2, would you feel that you had lived the right way for you? If not, you may want to re-evaluate your answers.

4. Create a dream map, by drawing, cutting out pictures, or making a list of all of the things, people and feelings you would like to have in your life. Work this picture until all of the parts truly reflect what you want for yourself.

What are some (small) steps that you can take that move you out of the current into steering your ship in the direction of the person you will be, with the right emphasis, to realize your dreams?


Winton, Tim. Cloudstreet. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin Books Australia, 1991.

New Year's Resolution Mystique

If you subscribe to many newsletters, magazines or newspapers, you’ve been inundated with articles on New Year’s Resolutions over the past few weeks. Tired of reading various recommendations on how to make and keep my resolutions, I thought it might be informative to see if the history of this tradition lent credibility to the mystique of the New Year’s Resolution.

New Years is a time for renewal, a time to start afresh. If you are in a northern climate with long nights and snow piling up, or in the southern hemisphere with long hot days, renewal and January 1 do not go hand in hand. However, in the time of the Babylonians, New Year’s was a time of renewal – the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox, in late March as we know it today.

We can thank the Romans in approximately 153 B.C. for naming the month after the god Janus and moving New Year’s to January 1. Janus, a mythical Roman king, had two faces – one facing to the past, and one facing to the future. Unfortunately, the Roman calendar was a bit chaotic, subject to addition or deletion of days by the priests in charge. Within a century, the season and dates were no longer coordinated. Caesar brought January 1 back in alignment in 47BC by declaring that year to be 445 days long. New Year’s Day became a moving target during the Middle Ages when first, the Christians moved it to December 25, and then the Vernal Equinox (the first day of Spring) came back into favor.

In 1582, the Gregorian calendar was introduced. Pope Gregory XIII decreed that January 1 under the Gregorian calendar was New Year’s Day, moving the calendar in synch with the rotation of the earth around the sun.

The Babylonians are credited with the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. They had the tradition of committing to the return of borrowed farm tools, remembering that this is the start of the planting season. Romans added a tradition of exchanging presents and resolving to seek forgiveness from their enemies in the New Year.

Before you set about creating a resolution for yourself, consider the history. New Year’s was to be a time for looking back and for looking forward. Originally linked to a time when the land was undergoing renewal, seeking a fresh beginning and luck for the next growing season was appropriate. With so many demands on our time and energies in today’s world, how could we hope that resolutions linked to the solar calendar decided by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 would have any staying power?

Change will come about when you have clearly identified what you are seeking, the benefits from the change, the downside to not changing, and established a plan with supporting structures for making the change. This year rather than look to the calendar to set a resolution, decide if change is truly what you seek. Only then, look to all of the wisdom on how to implement successfully the change you are seeking.


References:
“Calendars through the Ages”, http://webexhibits.org/calendars.

Coleman, Dan. “The History of New Year’s Resolutions”, Kansas City Public Library, http://www.kclibrary.org/guides/localhistory/index.cfm?article=read&articleID=335.

“New Year’s Day -- History, Traditions and Customs”, http://wilstar.com/holidays/newyear.htm.

“Ready for Midnight”, December 31, 2004, http://www.theage.com.au/news/General/Ready%2Dfor%2Dmidnight/2004/12/30/1104344926295.htm.

The GoalsGuy Learning Systems, Inc. “How to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions”. http://www.goalsguy.com/Events/n_facts.html.


Copyright 2007 Sherry L. Read, all rights reserved