Last week we talked about meaningful metrics, focusing on the game, not the score, and identifying and isolating the daily habits that are likely to lead to success. Today we’re going deep with a practical way to ensure your team’s busy day is worth it – giving them the breakthrough results they work so hard to achieve.
Here is the sad truth. It’s really easy to have a busy, busy day with little to worry about to show for it. We’ve all been there.
Of course, there are many reasons for this. Sloppy emails, unclear expectations, unproductive conflict and workplace drama. Days are filled with tons of activity, but you end the day, week or month and have nothing to show for all that effort.
The problem can be distractions from the most important activities. It can also be the way your team performs their tasks. They may be performing the activities and habits that should lead to success. But doing these habits without properly focusing on results can become a box-checking exercise.
They do what you asked, but focus on counting metrics (how busy they are), versus quality metrics, (how successful they are in completing these tasks).
How to get the most out of a busy day: moving from counting to quality
Moving from quantity to quality means reassessing how people spend their time. Some team members will do what they know how to do or what they are comfortable doing. They are busy, but do a lot of what is known, not necessarily what is most useful.
You’ll need to help them make that change (and demonstrate it yourself). For others, maybe they’re doing exactly what they need to, but they’re missing one small change that will leverage their hard work.
Let’s look at three examples of moving from count to quality.
A Busy Day Example 1: The enthusiastic sales rep who just doesn’t sell
First, imagine you are leading a sales team. One of your metrics is the number of times salespeople visit an existing customer to uncover additional opportunities. You have a sales rep who exceeds his call quota and is always out with customers – every day is a busy day.
But, the problem is that they are not selling anything new to these customers. The activities and habits that should work to help them achieve their MIT (the most important thing), don’t. You investigate and it turns out they hang out with the same three low-level managers because they have a good relationship. But they don’t ask strategic questions or uncover sales opportunities.
Now that you’re helping them grow from counting those visits to quality visits, get them to analyze who they’re visiting, what they’re discussing in the visits, and whether or not they’re determining the next step.
A quality visit might include getting to know a senior executive, discussing upcoming projects, learning about their sourcing requirements, or a follow-up meeting to share how your company can meet those needs.
Busy day Example 2: The efficient nurse, missing connection
Let’s look at another example from one of our healthcare clients. Their nursing staff did an excellent job in their numbers and countable activities. They took patients’ blood pressure and temperature, administered medication and completed their patients’ charts. But patient satisfaction scores did not reflect all of this activity—as important as it is.
The shift from count to quality for the nursing staff involved one small change in their busy day. When the nurse entered the patient’s room, they would greet the patient by name, tell the patient their name and what they needed to do. One small moment of connection leveraged all the other important work they were doing and their patient satisfaction scores improved.
As you help your team move from simply counting to evaluating the quality of their work and how much it contributes to the results you need to achieve, it’s important to apply this principle to your work as well.
It’s easy to get drawn into emails, to solve a problem that feels good but doesn’t make a big difference. It’s a good time to stop and reflect on your busy day: Do you have common activities that take up far more time than they add value? How can you spend less time on these? Or maybe stop doing them altogether?
Busy Day Example #3: The Manager Checks the Box
This example of a busy day is one of the most dangerous. When HR reviews the performance management system, this manager seems to be on hand. They checked all the boxes. One on one week, check. Mid-year review, check. Development plans, check. Five people identified this month, check. Yes, they even took their staff off-site for a year-end meeting.
And yet, employee engagement scores are among the lowest in the company, and Exit interviews Note that the largest The reasons people leave are the lack of a career path and support from their manager.
This is a case where the manager is so overwhelmed by his workload that he doesn’t take the time to really invest in his employee’s development, just doing enough to keep the “HR police” off his back. Or, they haven’t been trained in what success looks like for these critical employee development activities.
If you’re a manager of managers, don’t rely on an HR spreadsheet to tell you how well your managers are developing their teams.
Focus on quality
The metrics are important.
And the “count” indicators are definitely a start.
The sales experts are right, sales is a “numbers game” to some degree. And the number of phone calls made is just the beginning.
Sure, you need to know your employees are following safety protocols, but that’s a desk thing, not excellence.
And yes, it’s so important to track if your managers are doing key tasks like one-on-ones or development programs. But it’s even more important to ensure they help build trust and skill in their employees.
If you want your team’s busy days to count, we encourage you to dig a little deeper and focus on quality as well as count.
