We have all heard the often repeated mantra in business that a “plan without due dates is a dream.”

Due Dates are the first step is implementing a measurement process. In business, personal development, sports, proper nutrition and almost everything else, measurement is the “accountability step.”

Before you can hold your business partners, team, staff, employees, vendors, JV partners or anyone else accountable you have to start with YOU!  It can’t be “in your head” or a general idea, just like exercise can’t be in your head. You have to DO IT!

Measurement has to be written down consistently and archived; then compared to a standard, expectation or projection. At that point, you can act upon continuing what you’re doing or make specific changes if you’re not MEASURING UP!  This is the way to get a sense of B.A.G.

One of the smartest men I ever met wore a compass instead of a watch.

He acknowledged how low tech it was. He stated the weirdness of it was the important thing. He said, “There is a good reason for it. The concept is so unusual it forces me to look at my wrist often, write down where the needle is; and in that way, I know where I’ve been (B), where I am (A) and where I’m going (G).”

He believed that to succeed in anything you always need to know where you’re coming from, where you are now, and where you’re headed. Admittedly, good stuff to know. In other words, he knew he needed a specific way to measure his direction, his progress and if he was going to be successful in getting somewhere. MEASUREMENT is the key.

Just as a plan without a date is a dream, a business without a measurement for accountability purposes is a hobby. And in business, we’re judged and often must eat as a result of the ultimate measures: leads, prospects, customers, revenues, profits. Since all these elements are in front of us business folks, we might as well attach some metrics to them so we get our sense of direction.

The take away here is – DO IT – even if the results are embarrassing, confusing or downright depressing. Bad measurements allow us to correct. No measurement takes us into the rocks or over the cliff!

We’ve surrounded ourselves with measurement tools throughout history. When you think about it, from the beginning of recorded history, men have always measured progress, monitored achievement levels and created tools to make sure they stay on track.

I subscribe to the notion that our device evolution mirrors our own. The rollout of devices tells us some of our stories because as we build them, tidbits of our own story are incorporated into them. It seems to be baked into the human cake that we don’t know if anything really happened or if we accomplished anything unless we have some outside proof.

This is before the function of how high, how much or how far creeps in. It’s before our competitive nature “I did better than you,” comes into play. Somehow we need to prove to ourselves that something occurred.

Why? I believe human beings can’t stay on track or on course with anything unless we constantly monitor and measure. Just start thinking of all the devices we use to measure and all of a sudden this seems to make a lot of sense. This list doesn’t even scratch the surface of machines we invented to consistently measure.

MEASURING DEVICE

WHAT IT MEASURES

Barometer

Air pressure

Alcoholmeter

Alcoholic Strength of Liquids

Altimeter

Altitude

Saccharometer

Amount of Sugar in a Solution

Inclinometer

An angle of a Slope

Graphometer

Angles

Protractor

Angles

Mercury barometer

Atmospheric pressure

Glucometer

Blood Glucose (diabetes)

Sphygmomanometer

Blood Pressure

Breathalyser

Breath Alcohol Content

Odometer

Distance Travelled

 
I am sure all of us could come up with our own list of thousands more. But you get the idea!

Measure What?

Everything? No, don’t make yourself crazy and miserable by measuring each breathes you take or count the number of your heartbeats as you watch Dr. Oz on TV. But measuring is the best way to keep the person in the mirror accountable if you want to get your business on track and constantly moving in the right direction.

Actually, your mom probably taught you how important this was, but you forgot. Remember, mom stood you up against the door frame and drew a line. Then every so often, she stood you up there again and drew another line. And in most cases, the line got higher. Mom was teaching you a great lesson about “growing up!” Literally, she demonstrated that one of the signs of maturing was your height.

Proof positive that things were changing. Along with height and weight, other things were changing that would have to be addressed. Measuring meant more than a larger clothing size. It started you trying to make sense of the space you physically occupied and it meant you had a lot of things to start understanding and dealing with, both physically and mentally.

Measuring = Accountability

It’s good to weigh yourself if you’re trying to maintain optimum health and diet. It’s good to check and see if you can do 10 pull-ups like you have in the past. It’s smart to X-ray the metal in your manufacturing process for stress fractures. It makes sense to check the time and distance of your morning walk or jog. It’s reasonable to use a CRM system to know the number of prospects you’re adding to your sales funnel.

If you want to cook the perfect meal or bake a wonderful cake, a scale, thermometer and a timer will come in very handy. A thermostat is an indirect accountability. It allows your heating and cooling equipment to be accountable to you.

The best way to get it right in business is to consistently measure leads, prospects, conversion to customers, revenues, and profits or cash flow as well as a number of repeat clients and referrals.  Just as important is a measure of your customer’s satisfaction with your product or service.

Another important measurement metric in business is employee satisfaction and vendor satisfaction. You should care enough to measure those indicators of where your business is today. That’s how you get to where you want to go. Businesses can also enjoy significant cost savings by implementing a flexible employee benefits platform such as Avantus Employee Benefits. By allowing employees to select the benefits that they truly value, companies can allocate their resources more efficiently and minimise wastage. This leads to better financial performance and a more engaged workforce.

That brings up assessment tests. Take one. It’s fun. It’s easy. It’s inexpensive. It will give you information that will add to your knowledge about that person you see in the mirror each morning.

Every professional athlete has a coach. High school and college teams have a coach. All Olympic contenders have a coach. Chess masters have coaches. Folks who want to excel at yoga or meditation have coaches. Top business leaders have coaches. Why shouldn’t you have a coach?

Coaches do many things

One of the most important things they do is measure. They measure against performance standards. They measure against your past performance. They measure your most recent performance and assist you in making the daily or weekly adjustments you need to make in order to help you stay on track. This applies to a business coach, a tennis coach, a life coach, a spiritual coach or any coach.
 
You Must Decide on the Measurables to Create Magic. In order to begin, you have to determine what are the measurable items that will start you off and keep you on course? You determine what they are and then measure!

The measurement should include goals you have established in your business, days you have set aside for your family, time reserved for learning new things in health, fitness, spirit, travel, nature and all the items that you’ve decided will make you get it just right on your way to your definition of success.

It’s really nice to know you’ve started a journey, where you are on the journey and if it’s the right journey. Having a set of Measurables keeps you moving in the right direction.
 

The Last and Best Measure is to join a Mastermind Group. If you don’t know what it is… it’s a group that offers its members the combined wisdom and skills of the members to support each other to achieve success. The skills may be specific to the business, personal empowerment, spiritual leanings or not. Most Mastermind meetings include group brainstorming on issues or problems, talking about success processes, new devices, discoveries and sharing information.

Usually, members of the group get to know each other and connections are made. The members get to respect each other for their contributions. That’s where the power of a Mastermind comes in. Members commit to stretch and set big goals and commit to the group to implement them. The group challenges advise and assists members to accomplish those big goals. They do it with honesty, confidentiality, and support, but never with judgment.

Masterminds “grow members up“ just like your mom used to do. They don’t draw a line on the door frame. Instead, they hold members accountable to themselves; to draw their own lines as they stretch and grow. It’s self-reported growth. When participants are honest, they produce the most powerful catalyst for growth I’ve ever encountered.

Accountability to oneself through a benevolent peer group is a powerful instrument of measuring personal achievement on your pathway to getting to where you want to go. Find a Mastermind Group. Join one. Start one. It’s easy to do. Ask around. There’s plenty of information on Google. It will help you grow by measuring in a supportive group environment!

“Think and Grow Rich’” and “Mastermind.”
author Napoleon Hill

“The coordination of knowledge and effort in the spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose. No individual may have great power without availing himself of the ‘Mastermind’. No two minds ever come together without, thereby creating a third, invisible, intangible force that may be likened to a third mind.”

That’s the power of the Mastermind. Napoleon was an insightful guy and a seminal force in the motivational literature movement. He laid the foundation for so many who followed from Jim Rohn to Tony Robbins.

Benjamin Franklin was one of our founding fathers but he was also a very smart guy. Look up a list of things this genius invented. You will be amazed. Besides the lightning rod, the Post Office, the lending library and bifocal glasses, he founded one of the first Masterminds. Ben Franklin organized the Leather Apron Club, also called the Junto when he was 21.

It was established in 1727 to debate questions of morals, politics, natural philosophy and to exchange knowledge of business affairs. Along with everything else he accomplished, it seems Ben Franklin put the Mastermind on the map! If it’s good enough for Ben Franklin, it’s good enough for me. How about you?

Don’t miss this fabulous (mostly free) extremely valuable human measurement tool. It’s right in front of you, easy to access and a game changer for your business, personal and spiritual success. Take advantage of it!

So, what’s the takeaway here? MEASUREMENT CAN BE MAGIC. Like anything else, to get the magical result you must deploy the magic wand. In this case, it’s MEASUREMENT.  It’s so easy to implement a few of the suggestions in this article. If you do, you’ll constantly move forward.

Others will think you’re a magician because of the successes you achieve.

If you don’t, you’re likely to slow your growth and wind up going around in circles instead on your pathway to success.