The Sales and Marketing Professionals
Measure Results, Not Hours Worked
Managers who feel that they're running flat‑out on a treadmill are usually the victims of two conditions. One is the "activity trap" ‑ a tendency to focus on the amount of effort expended rather than the results.
The other condition, "performance myopia," is a failure to see yourself through the eyes of your internal and external clients.
Focus on Results
Your activities are routine tasks and functions. A financial analyst, for example, inputs budget data or checks budget variances against actual.
But it's the results of those activities ‑ reports ‑ that really matter, because they're the things that project managers, executives and other internal customers can see and appreciate. Prioritizing activities is essential.
Are you stuck in the activity trap? You may be if you prefer familiar or satisfying activities. You measure your effort by how many hours you put in. You don't feel productive unless you're stressed and tired. And no matter how hard you work, no one seems to notice. To avoid this pitfall:
* Measure yourself against end results.
* Try to improve results with less effort and fewer resources.
* Realize that longer hours do not automatically lead to greater productivity.
Measure What's Important
* Clients' needs are dynamic. So your team must anticipate these needs and respond quickly.
* Measuring your service to internal and external clients is perhaps the best way to avoid performance myopia.
If you're a results‑oriented manager in the human resources (HR) department, for example, you might review the performance evaluations of new hires and track the percentage that remained with the company for one year or longer. These data would reveal whether HR achieved a good match between applicants' skills and departments' job requirements.
Looking at the length of time that a position remained vacant would help the HR team see how quickly they're responding to other departments' needs.
An activity‑oriented manager, in contrast, would probably measure performance by looking at applications processed, interviews conducted, etc. ‑ not ways to spotlight HR as a high‑performance group.