174. Turn Your LAGGING Indicators into LEADING Indicators - Brayden Russell
Aug 21, 2024
auto_awesome
Brayden Russell, a business coach specializing in transforming lagging indicators to leading indicators, shares valuable insights on performance metrics. He emphasizes the need for actionable goals that drive team success instead of merely tracking results after the fact. The discussion includes strategies for enhancing operational efficiency and fostering team collaboration. Russell also recounts personal experiences that highlight the shift from traditional KPIs to a more proactive approach, ultimately leading to improved business outcomes.
Transforming lagging indicators into leading indicators empowers teams to focus on actionable steps that drive desired results.
Engaging team members in discussions about leading indicators fosters collaboration, ownership, and investment in the business's overall success.
Deep dives
Understanding Lagging and Leading Indicators
Lagging indicators are output-oriented metrics that reflect past performance, such as gross profit and total sales figures. They illustrate whether a business has achieved its goals after the fact but do not provide insight into the actions that led to those results. In contrast, leading indicators are input-focused and help project future results, guiding businesses towards better performance by emphasizing specific actions that can influence lagging metrics. For example, instead of simply telling project managers to increase gross profit, focusing on actionable steps, like keeping material expenses below a certain percentage, allows teams to understand what they need to do to drive desired outcomes.
The Importance of Critical Numbers
Establishing a critical number involves identifying a significant metric that, when achieved, positively impacts the entire business. This process helps entrepreneurs set specific goals that connect leading indicators with lagging indicators and ensures everyone on the team understands their role in achieving these targets. By concentrating on one crucial aspect at a time, such as maintaining material costs within a specified range, the entire team can rally around a clear focus, fostering accountability and collaboration. This clarity leads to better strategic planning and helps drive overall organizational success.
The Conveyor Belt Analogy
Visualizing a business as a conveyor belt can clarify how various departments interact and contribute to overall success. In this model, leads flow in at one end, progressing through departments like marketing, sales, production, and finance, ultimately resulting in net profit. Each department has its own set of leading indicators that affect performance downstream, meaning that understanding workflows allows leaders to pinpoint areas needing attention. By recognizing how leading indicators in one department impact outcomes in another, leaders can create more effective strategies to enhance overall business performance.
Empowering Teams Through Engagement
Involving team members in discussions about identifying leading indicators fosters a sense of ownership and investment in the business's success. When owners solicit feedback from their teams, they not only gain valuable insights but also encourage collaboration that can lead to discovering actionable solutions to persistent problems. This approach enhances team dynamics, creating a supportive environment where everyone feels responsible for their contributions. Ultimately, this collective understanding enables employees to align their daily tasks with the company’s goals, improving both performance and morale.
We all know the standard KPIs we need to track the success of a business. Dollars sold. Dollars produced. Gross profit. Net profit.
The only problem with these all-important metrics is that they are LAGGING indicators.
We find out about their performance AFTER the activity that drives them has already happened. They tell us whether we achieved the results we wanted, but say little about how to get those results in the future.
This is where LEADING indicators can be instrumental in helping you lead your team.
If you tell your project managers to raise gross profit next quarter, they won’t know how.
But if you tell them to keep their materials expenses below 15% by following a more efficient ordering and purchasing process.
They actually stand a pretty good chance.
Today, Breakthrough Academy Coach Brayden Russell is on the show to break down how to turn your lagging indicators into leading indicators and orient your team towards success.