Article
Rally your teams with a performance measurement culture
The Performance Measurement Series
04
People: Cultivate a metrics-focused culture
A plant manager knows there are no performance issues as long as he can see the blue line painted around the walls of an automotive parts factory. But he isn’t the only one who watches the blue line. Employees do too. When it disappears, they usually address the problem before he has to.
This blue line is pure performance measurement genius. Employees understand it. They internalize it. They are accountable to it. Getting employees to rally behind performance measurement and power metrics like this requires a metrics-focused culture.
The power of a metrics-focused culture
Research consistently shows a positive correlation between a strong culture and better business performance. Still, organizations often silo culture within human resources—or dismiss it as being about soft factors—when culture is fundamental to operationalizing the business strategy or mission.
While creating a metrics-focused culture is only one aspect of cultivating a strong organizational culture, it is an important one. A leading transportation company knows this firsthand. To improve call center performance, the company developed an “infrastructure” of metrics, data, analytics, dashboards, and governance. Employees know how they are evaluated and have the tools to deliver. Daily debriefs with managers keep employees accountable to their metrics, which are a natural part of how work is done.
This metrics-focused culture didn’t come from establishing metrics. That was only the start.
The culture evolved because the company was intentional about getting employee support and buy-in. Leaders made the “what,” “why,” and “how” of performance measurement clear and relevant. In other words, they made the power metrics matter to employees, made them meaningful, and made them material.
Make it matter
Why are we measuring performance?
Employees need to know why the organization is measuring performance and creating power metrics. Otherwise, they may fear negative outcomes, which can create skepticism and anxiety about measurement.
It’s essential to explain that power metrics are the most important indicators of business success. With this context, employees can see performance measurement through an organizational lens. What’s key is articulating the connection between individual performance and the organization’s ability to achieve business goals, deliver the mission, and stay true to core values. Connecting these dots is especially powerful in purpose-driven and mission-based organizations.
The more that employees understand the connection between how they perform every day and how the organization performs overall, the stronger the metrics-focused culture becomes. People need to know the value of their unique contributions. Think about a baseball team, for example. The number of wins is the power metric. More wins means more ticket revenue. More revenue means more budget for salaries, resources, and facilities. But players don’t win alone. Managers, coaches, trainers, scouts, groundskeepers, and front office staff all have a part. And everyone benefits from the wins.
Key actions
- Make performance measurement about positive outcomes, not negative consequences.
- Connect performance measurement to your organization’s ability to deliver the business strategy or mission.
- Help employees understand their unique role in the organization’s overall success.
Make it meaningful
What exactly are we measuring?
Once employees understand why performance measurement matters, they need to know what is being measured. There’s no building a metrics-focused culture on power metrics that are arbitrary and based on feelings and subjective assessments. That involves too much gray area. Measures must be clear, simple, and quantifiable.
It is also essential that employees are able to control and influence metrics as part of their responsibilities. That’s a big reason why factory employees rally around the blue line. It measures something they are directly responsible for. When there are problems or delays, employees are empowered to take corrective actions to influence and improve the metric.
Making power metrics actionable for employees means giving them the tools and skills to deliver the expected performance. For the automotive parts factory, empowering employees like this involves things like providing enough forklifts to move inventory or staffing teams to handle demand fluctuations.
Key actions
- Solicit employee input when establishing power metrics to ensure relevance and practical application.
- Develop power metrics that are simple, visible, and actionable by all employees.
- Empower employees with the tools and skills they need to deliver on power metrics.
Make it material
How are we measuring performance?
Building a metrics-focused culture also requires transparency around how each metric is measured. Leaders should communicate how measurement will happen and how often, setting clear expectations around every aspect of the performance measurement program. Specificity is essential.
Transparency here builds employee trust, which is non-negotiable to get their buy-in. Another aspect of transparency in this context is being consistent in how measurement is handled across all employee groups. This way, organizations can avoid creating them-versus-us dynamics across different teams, which are blockers to culture building.
Being transparent about the “how” of measuring performance at the highest levels of the organization has a trickle-down effect. It creates an environment where metrics are in full view—often, literally, in shared office spaces or on the factory floor. Employees stop hoarding information and are open to having others see their performance. In these environments, positive peer influence fuels cultural change, becoming a forcing function and incentive for employees to want to perform better.
Key actions
- Foster team accountability with friendly competition.
- Strengthen individual accountability by embedding power metrics in performance conversations.
- Praise strong performance publicly and incentivize it with rewards and recognition.
Build from the fundamentals
Ensuring that employees understand the why, what, and how of performance measurement is fundamental to creating a metrics-focused culture. But the work doesn’t end here. Organizations that sustain this culture also:
1
Push employees without overwhelming them. Power metrics must be reasonable for employees to rally behind them. This doesn’t mean catering to mediocrity by setting performance measures that don’t support progress. The key is to develop power metrics that strike the right balance. The metrics push people beyond their comfort zone to encourage personal and organizational growth but are not so challenging that achieving them feels out of reach.
2
Ensure leadership accountability at all levels. Leaders are culture builders. Executive leaders set the vision and make investments, while mid-level leaders handle everyday execution. All leaders should follow the “show, don’t tell” principle and model the metrics themselves. It’s also critical to champion power metrics, raise awareness, and set clear expectations. Providing constructive feedback and recognizing success hold employees accountable without micromanaging them.
3
Invest in a performance measurement infrastructure. Organizations can’t expect employees to deliver against power metrics if they don’t have the right tools and skills. Remember the transportation company? This company’s metrics-focused culture wasn’t born from intention alone. Executive leaders invested in dashboards, tools, and skill building. All of these things empowered employees to view the metrics as something they could actually achieve.
4
Cultivate a culture of integrity around data insight. Power metrics hinge on having the right, reliable, and repeatable data. But if employees don’t trust the data used to track their performance, there’s no cultivating a metrics-focused culture. It’s essential to have strong data management practices and be transparent about them. This way, employees are confident in data quality because they understand how data is being gathered, cleaned, and secured.
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Create an environment of psychological safety. Employees must feel safe and equipped to do their jobs. This means that leaders actively encourage them to be open and honest. They welcome feedback. In organizations that value and support psychological safety, employees are fully confident that they can ask for what they need to be successful, communicate freely about what’s not working, and raise risks to leadership without fear of retribution.
Culture is the unsung hero of successful performance measurement. Organizations that rally their people behind power metrics don’t just build culture. They fuel better performance too.
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