How do you know you’re on track? – SCN Encourager 3/27/2014

How do you plot your progress?

Do you use a customized rubric?

Or an incentivized metric of some kind?

I recommend using this chart.

It pulls together the combined standard deviation data points on both your user performance and user subjective ratings.

To be honest, it doesn’t impact my progress in any way.

But it does allow me to have a convoluted explanation ready to go should a legislator want to know why (as a public employee) I’m  not making progress on something.

I love being able to explain that I can’t work on making progress… because I’m devoting  too much time to tracking and recording it!

You know this argument is ridiculous.

I know it, too.

But it’s always effective whenever an annoying “data-phobe” is in the building.

As with most things in life, “bobbing and weaving” and “slippery verbal roundabouts” about your progress usually require considerably more thought and work than “just doing it.”

Your parents probably told you this, too, when you were growing up.

But this still leaves answered the question how successful leaders and communicators benchmark their daily progress… within themselves… and within their organizations.

Do they use a growth chart?

Is that their secret?

Well, most of them could.

Their common practice is nearly this rudimentary.

It’s not rocket-science.

Many successful leaders and communicators ensure consistent progress toward their goals by simply asking themselves two questions at the end of the day.

They ask:

1.  Did they work on the EASY things or the NECESSARY things?

2.  Did they work on COMFORTABLE things 100% of the time (inside of their comfort zones) OR did they tackle a few UNCOMFORTABLE things which are outside of their comfort zones?

Apparently, it’s a fact that noteworthy progress and growth are directly proportional to the effort expended on the necessary and the uncomfortable.

They also say that making progress in this way brings big time side benefits to the organizational culture as well.

OK. Fine.

But I’m going to withhold my judgment for a later time and report back.

I’m not ready to give up on my standard deviation data point chart just yet.

After all these years, I can now use it without reading from my notes.

Tom Page, SCN