0:36

All right, today, we're going to dig into a big one here. It's called

0:37

performance. And it's point six

0:40

of the 10 pillars of purposeful

0:40

leadership that we've been

0:43

discussing here in the

0:43

miniseries on the business owner

0:46

breakthrough. And when I say

0:46

performance, I'm not just

0:49

talking about measuring the

0:49

KPIs, I'm talking about an

0:52

overarching sort of holistic

0:52

approach to driving levels of

0:57

performance throughout your

0:57

business. So we're gonna look

1:00

into metrics, of course, KPIs,

1:00

and all that sort of stuff. But

1:03

we're also going to dig into a

1:03

little bit about identifying the

1:07

gaps and what you can do to fill

1:07

them which in my opinion, is the

1:10

most important thing to garner

1:10

are performance attitude within

1:14

your business. And the reality

1:14

of it is, is performance just

1:18

isn't about the metrics, right?

1:18

Metrics are really just numbers

1:22

unless you know what to do with

1:22

them, right. And think about

1:26

metrics as may be the pulse of

1:26

your business, because a pulse

1:30

can tell you that you're alive,

1:30

but it can't really tell you if

1:33

you're healthy. And the same

1:33

goes for metrics, they can

1:38

indicate whether your business

1:38

is operational, but they can't

1:40

really say, if it's efficient or

1:40

effective, it just gives you

1:45

points to make decisions off of

1:45

right. They're one of the

1:49

decision making tools that you

1:49

require as the leader, and your

1:52

team requires them as well. So

1:52

they have to be informed and

1:56

knowledgeable about the numbers

1:56

to make the decisions that they

1:59

need to make. Because remember,

1:59

decisions are made at the lowest

2:02

possible level of the

2:02

organization. We talked about

2:04

that a lot here on the podcast.

2:04

But the idea around key

2:07

performance indicators, really

2:07

is that there are metrics that

2:11

directly correlate with your

2:11

business objectives. And they

2:14

can guide your strategy, they

2:14

can help you focus your team

2:19

around some of this stuff. But

2:19

listen up, you know, KPIs really

2:23

are only effective if they're

2:23

aligned with your business goals

2:26

and your values. Don't get

2:26

caught up in vanity metrics that

2:30

look good on paper, but don't

2:30

really help you or your team,

2:33

make decisions and move the

2:33

needle. For deeper dive on this,

2:37

you can go to a couple of different episodes that we've had in the past. One is called

2:39

cracking the code figures for

2:43

business success, and the other

2:43

one is decoding decision making

2:46

the power of facts, so deeper

2:46

dives over there. But for now,

2:51

you've got this idea about KPIs,

2:51

and they're aligning with your

2:54

business goals, right? Now what?

2:54

Well, here's where you find the

2:58

gaps. Let's say your customer

2:58

satisfaction rate is top notch,

3:02

but your customer acquisition is

3:02

maybe lagging a little bit,

3:06

that's a gap. And once you

3:06

identify these gaps, it becomes

3:09

clear where you need to focus

3:09

your energy. If you're in

3:12

retail, maybe your turn rates

3:12

aren't as high as you'd like

3:15

them to be. Or if you own a

3:15

business that has returning

3:18

clients, maybe it's your client

3:18

return rate that isn't as high,

3:22

you know, you're not getting

3:22

them to re up as they return or

3:25

come back to you as much as you

3:25

would like. But once you've

3:28

identified these different gaps

3:28

within your business, don't

3:31

worry, you know, we all have

3:31

gaps in our businesses. So it's

3:34

not like you're the only one out

3:34

there, the most important thing

3:37

is you need to address them as

3:37

the leader, right. If you don't

3:40

address the gaps, they turn into

3:40

black holes, that can suck the

3:44

life out of your business and,

3:44

and quite honestly, the culture

3:47

of your business too, right?

3:47

Understanding that deep dive

3:50

into these main 123 gaps that

3:50

are going to be the biggest

3:54

impact for you, this quarter is

3:54

an important piece, look at the

3:59

training, revisit your

3:59

processes, maybe even reevaluate

4:03

your product or your service

4:03

based on the gaps that you come

4:06

up with. And it's really good to

4:06

include your team in some of

4:09

these meetings as well, because

4:09

they're hands on, they're doing

4:11

what they need, and you need

4:11

their input in order to make an

4:15

even better decision. So the

4:15

task for the week really is to

4:18

build your KPI dashboard. Think

4:18

about the metrics that truly

4:22

matter to your business and plot

4:22

them all out. A well designed

4:26

dashboard can really give you

4:26

quick insights without sifting

4:31

through all of the different

4:31

pieces of the puzzle that make

4:35

up your business. And some of

4:35

you can get the metrics from

4:38

your CRM or maybe your point of

4:38

sales system. But you probably

4:41

have other KPIs that are really

4:41

important to that aren't on

4:45

those different platforms. So I

4:45

really find using a spreadsheet

4:49

to be a good way to have them

4:49

all in place. There are tools

4:52

out there that will take all the

4:52

different spreadsheets, all the

4:54

different, you know things and

4:54

put them all in a nice little

4:57

dashboard as well. But quite

4:57

honestly, the main thing is that

5:01

you have the information that

5:01

you need. It doesn't really have

5:05

to look pretty or cute. It just

5:05

has to give you the information

5:09

that you need to make better

5:09

decisions. We have sales and

5:13

metrics on ours at utopia. We

5:13

also have things like accounts

5:17

payable, email, open rates, and

5:17

we even have the amount of pairs

5:21

of shoes that we've collected

5:21

for local Foodbank, because

5:23

that's one of our key pieces of

5:23

being a good corporate citizen

5:27

in our community and we want to

5:27

track that you need a benchmark

5:30

to start with so that you can

5:30

track your improvement along the

5:35

way and make the decisions that

5:35

will create the success that

5:38

you're looking for in all the

5:38

areas of importance on my

5:41

dashboard for this business

5:41

simplifying entrepreneurship, I

5:44

have things like the amount of

5:44

speaking opportunities that I

5:47

have booked, the amount of

5:47

listens on the podcast, hear

5:51

business owners in the pipeline

5:51

at any given time. I also look

5:55

at podcasts and YouTube numbers,

5:55

I look at a variety of different

5:58

things. But the idea here is

5:58

that you pulling them all into

6:02

one area so that you can have a

6:02

quick overview to make easy

6:05

decisions to make the difference

6:05

and identify the gaps, right? If

6:09

all this talk of KPIs and

6:09

performance gaps and dashboards

6:12

is making you feel a little bit

6:12

uneasy, well, as you know, I'm

6:15

here to help reach out to me on

6:15

LinkedIn, that's where you'll

6:18

find me most of the time as far

6:18

as the social sides of things,

6:23

or just go to speak to pete.com.

6:23

That's speak to pete.com. And

6:28

you can book an appointment with

6:28

me and we'll have a chat for

6:31

half an hour or so to see if

6:31

we're right fit for some future

6:35

coaching. You know, a quick note

6:35

here. While it's important to

6:38

act swiftly on these things, you

6:38

don't want to jump the gun,

6:42

acting too early, can waste

6:42

resources. And you really

6:47

balance is the key here as the

6:47

leader of the business, a

6:50

measured thoughtful approach

6:50

often wins the race with this

6:54

stuff. Remember our episode a

6:54

couple of weeks ago on the

6:58

importance of patience, right.

6:58

And if you didn't listen to

7:01

that, when you might want to go

7:01

back there as well. There's been

7:03

a few good things here that are

7:03

linking in together here on the

7:06

business owner breakthrough.

7:06

It's really easy to be

7:09

overwhelmed by the data. But the

7:09

numbers are pointless unless

7:12

converted inaction. So use your

7:12

KPIs as triggers for change and

7:15

improvement, right? Your company

7:15

culture can be a silent killer,

7:19

or a secret weapon, when it

7:19

comes to performance and a

7:23

culture of continuous

7:23

improvement will keep everyone

7:26

aligned and focused. So take a

7:26

good look at this culture of

7:30

performance. does it encourage

7:30

performance? Are you encouraging

7:34

performance as a leader? And is

7:34

it time maybe for some change in

7:38

some crucial conversations with

7:38

your team around this sort of

7:41

stuff, you can use tack but tech

7:41

isn't just about the gadgets.

7:45

It's about streamlining

7:45

processes, improving customer

7:49

experience. And yes, tracking

7:49

performance as well. Don't shy

7:53

away from using tech tools that

7:53

can give you a better picture of

7:57

your performance and help you

7:57

act on some of the things right

8:01

there are so many great API's

8:01

out there. There's so many great

8:04

apps, there's so many great

8:04

tools. It's your job as a leader

8:07

to stay informed with some of

8:07

these and to make sure that your

8:10

team is staying informed of the

8:10

ones that are most relative to

8:12

them as well, right. Our last

8:12

activity sort of had you

8:15

creating this dashboard. Now

8:15

take it one step further. Align

8:19

the dashboard of all of your

8:19

KPIs with the actionable steps

8:24

tied to each one of those. For

8:24

instance, if a metric dips below

8:29

a certain point, what's your

8:29

action plan? Who is responsible

8:32

Write, write it down, make sure

8:32

that your team knows it's even

8:38

better when you can take this

8:38

and put somebody's name behind

8:41

it. Remember, align it and

8:41

assign it is your only way to

8:46

freedom unless you are going to

8:46

make all of the decisions in

8:49

your business every day, right.

8:49

So here's where you can use one

8:52

of the thinking tools that I

8:52

came up with back a few years

8:54

ago. It's called the one page

8:54

prop and you can download it

8:56

pretty easily over at my

8:56

website, simplifying

8:59

entrepreneurship.com forward

8:59

slash p r o p prop. So it's just

9:05

a great one page tool to get

9:05

everything out of your head, put

9:10

it into an actionable step so

9:10

that you can then take that

9:13

sheet handed off to somebody

9:13

else in order to get the ball

9:16

rolling for you, right. It's

9:16

called the prop once again, P R

9:20

O P stands for purpose, result,

9:20

obstacles and plan. And it's

9:24

your way to help get the stuff

9:24

out of your head onto the sheet

9:29

so that you can then align it

9:29

and assign it with some other

9:32

people in the business in order

9:32

to move through the gaps. Get

9:36

through those KPIs and make some

9:36

stuff happen in your business.

9:40

Most aspects of your business

9:40

can be measured from customer

9:45

satisfaction, profit margins,

9:45

all sorts of different things,

9:49

of course, and the numbers do

9:49

tell a story. But it's not just

9:52

about the numbers. It's about

9:52

what you do with them. And

9:55

identifying these performance

9:55

gaps that we've been talking

9:58

about here. drafting those

9:58

actionable plans, and always

10:02

holding yourself and your team

10:02

accountable in order to move the

10:06

ball for your business because

10:06

when your business moves ahead,

10:09

so it is your life. Go and make

10:09

it a great day.

10:20

An ironic media

10:20

production visit us at our

10:23

ONICK media.com