Stop Flying Blind (#291)
The Confident Leader
BOOST YOUR LEADERSHIP IN UNCERTAIN TIMES
He was clear about his organization’s performance.
“What gets measured gets managed.”
— Peter Drucker
This Week’s Edition
Some leaders don’t have enough data.
Others have too much—dashboards full of it.
Both types of leaders can still be flying blind.
Clarify Your Thinking
There are two types of metric confusion I see repeatedly.
The first group doesn’t have the numbers. They rely on instinct, anecdotes, and energy in the room. They make decisions based on how things feel.
The second group has so much data they can’t interpret it. Reports pile up. Dashboards expand.
Meetings revolve around spreadsheets. Yet clarity never comes.
The situation looks different on the surface. The problem underneath is the same.
Leaders don’t have clarity on the numbers that matter.
When that happens, decisions become reactive. Teams chase initiatives without knowing whether they move the business forward. Time and resources are spent exploring trails that don’t produce meaningful results.
The impact compounds:
- Energy is high, but progress is unclear
- Meetings feel busy, but direction is fuzzy
- Leaders grow frustrated because outcomes don’t match effort
Old Thinking
If we work hard enough and stay busy, results will follow.
New Thinking
If we define the right indicators and review them consistently, we can lead with confidence instead of guesswork.
Thoughts Lead to Actions
Leaders don’t need more data; they need the right data.
Harvard Business School found that organizations that embrace data-driven decision-making are better positioned to improve productivity, efficiency, and performance.
The key differentiator is not the amount of data collected, but how effectively leaders use it to guide action.
Metrics are about visibility.
Confident leaders decide in advance which indicators matter most, so they don’t drown in information later or starve for lack of information.
Before building a dashboard, start with this question:
What must be true for us to win this year?
From there, build your metrics around two categories.
1. Lagging Indicators
These measure outcomes after the fact.
- Did you hit revenue targets?
- Did you achieve your forecast?
- Did customer retention improve?
Lagging indicators tell you what happened.
They matter. But they don’t help you course-correct quickly.
2. Leading Indicators
These measure the behaviors and activities that drive the outcome.
- How many qualified sales conversations happened today?
- How many product demos were completed this week?
- How many proposals were sent?
- How many customer check-ins were conducted?
Leading indicators tell you whether you’re doing the work required to produce the result.
If lagging indicators tell you whether you won, leading indicators tell you whether you’re playing well and advancing the ball.
Here’s how to apply this:
Step 1: Define 3–5 Core KPIs
More than five Key Performance Indicators and you’re likely to lose focus. Less than three and you miss context.
Step 2: Pair Every Outcome with an Activity
Revenue → sales conversations
Retention → proactive client meetings
Growth → new pipeline creation
Step 3: Review Weekly, Not Quarterly
Quarterly reviews are like autopsies. Weekly reviews provide an opportunity to adjust.
Clarify your metrics, and something shifts:
Conversations sharpen.
Accountability increases.
Energy aligns with outcomes.
And leadership becomes proactive instead of reactive.
Boost Your Performance
In this week’s video, I break down how one leadership team moved from reactive decision-making to strategic clarity by redefining their leading and lagging indicators and how it changed the way they met, planned, and executed.
What’s Your Opinion?
Are you measuring outcomes… or the activities that create them? I’d love to hear how you define your leading indicators at robin.pou@robinpou.com.
If you are going to be a leader, you might as well be a good one. Don’t let doubt count you out. Have a confident week!
Robin Pou, Chief Advisor and Strategist
We live to make bad leadership extinct so forward this newsletter to others who strive to be confident leaders.
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What is “The Confident Leader”?
During the Covid-19 Pandemic, I began a video series called “Panic or Plan?” It was designed to equip leaders to navigate the doubt they experienced and to rise in the confidence they needed to lead during turbulent times. It took off. I then started this newsletter to equip leaders in the same fashion each week for the doubt that crashes across the bow of their leaderSHIP.
