I have come across an leadership analytics tool that I believe can really help all of us who lead others, keep organizations running, and pursue a variety of professional endeavors, all the while attempting to keep some semblance of balance in our lives. It’s a tough thing to do and it is needless to say the obvious – leaders are busy. The tool is OMTM, which stands for “one metric that matters.” It’s from a book called Lean Analytics by Croll and Yaskovitz. The idea is that we are all buried in metrics about how our organization is doing and all are perceived as important ones to which we should pay attention. It’s true that there are many pieces of data that we need to know about our operation, but in some cases, data is more important than other data and there is now a way for us to know everything. This forces us to prioritize the good over the bad. But what about the good from the good? OMTM encourages leaders to choose to look at and benchmark our success on one key metric at a time. The others remain important, but for a period of time, we are to choose the one that is most significant to our success. It could be sales, leads, inquiries, or in some cases, attendance at an event. At any given point, there is most likely one thing that would be best to watch right now. As the business and the circumstances change, the OMTM should change with it. OMTM is fluid and agile. Today you may need to look at one set of metrics, but next month, you may really need to look at something else, because often metrics effect each other. OMTM is about priorities. Lots of things are important, but, a few things are critical. Pay attention to the critical things, then use the metrics to change your behaviors.
So, what does this have to do with a garage sale? I’ve been working on throwing a huge garage sale to benefit a charitable group in my community, so we’ve been going through the process of sorting out our and others’ household goods. It’s amazing the amount of stuff we collect! The connection to the OMTM approach to leadership is that everything that is now being donated to the garage sale was probably something that someone really thought they needed at the time. However, today they are getting rid of it. Was it ever really necessary? Was it something that we really could not have lived without? At what point did it become “just stuff?” We do this with material things as well as activities. As we go along, we accumulate many things which today are treasured and tomorrow in a pile for the garage sale. What if we start living with a OMTM mindset? Before we say yes to purchasing something or to adding another project to our already busy schedule, ask ourselves, “Is this going to be something that really matters down the road?” Will this be one thing that matters in my life? Is this purchase or schedule addition worthy of being a priority?
Leaders must make the decision when to add something and when to pass on it. We must think ahead to forecast if something will be a metric that matters or something that will end up in a garage sale.
Lead well.