Do You Use a Secret Key Performance Indicator(KPI)
…that you only care about
Back in 1993 I started my teaching career when I was given a course to teach called Dynamics of Physical Systems. It was a junior level engineering course that both electrical and mechanical engineers took.
Not having ever instructed a course, I was a bit nervous. I wanted the students to have a great experience. BUT how was I going to self-evaluate the experience?
For me success in that first course was that I covered all of the material and did not get stumped too many times by questions. Even though I did not expect to be the best professor that has ever instructed that course, I worked like one but allowed myself some room for failure.
Did I set the bar pretty low?
I wanted the students to come back raving about the course. I wanted them to tell me that I did an A+ job of teaching the course. BUT I only wanted to give myself a grade of C. That was my key performance indicator (KPI) that I cared the most about.
Why?
I believed, and still do, that the second time I would teach that class my KPI be at B+ level. That meant that I covered all of the material, did not get stumped by an outlier question, and was able to really emphasize the key concepts.
Third time I wanted the KPI to be A+. That was world class level teaching that course. There would be maybe 1–2 people in the world that would be able to teach taht course at the level and quality that I could do it.
That is pretty good improvement for someone that never instructed a course. It became my adaptive KPI for teaching for the rest of my career.
What about writing? Do I have a secret KPI?
For every story I review the numbers that LinkedIn provides. It gives me three dimensions to get a picture of my audience.
For this recent story it tells me which company most of my readers work in (BP). The title most often used on their profile (Salesperson). ANd where the majority lives (Houston TX). Those KPIs are interesting BUT there is one that I most like to check.
Can you guess?
My secret KPI is number of senior level executives that are reading my articles.
Why?
These are senior management people and often founders. Having their attention is influence over many vs. individuals. They are usually leading teams of teams.
Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate all of my readers. Anyone that is willing to take the time to consume the content is appreciated.
There is no perfect KPI and I believe measuring it provides us with the focus needed to influence. What get measured typically improves.
SO what is your secret KPI?
