First bump between colleagues at work. Success in business. Everyday work in the office.
There are some activities where it is harder to measure time passing, like taking a walk, having a good conversation at lunch, or having an exciting brainstorming session. In other activities, time crawls by minute by minute, especially when individuals question, “are we there yet?” Although time is a precise measurement, the user can often inaccurately assess its passing. Is it flying by or standing still? The point is that our internal clock will never be as accurate as the real one, and measuring something or someone accurately makes a big difference.
We’re Not Good Judges of Our Performance
After assessing thousands of leaders, it has become clear that most people are poor judges of their own performance. One only needs to watch past episodes of American Idol auditions to see that many people overestimate their talent and ability in certain areas.
Why? Because others often tell them what they want to hear rather than being completely honest and straightforward. Even bosses do this regularly only to burst a person’s perceptual bubble in their yearly performance review when they give a poor rating.
The Truth About Accurate Measurement
That moment of truth behind the realization of an accurate measurement can be eye-opening. How often are you surprised when opening your credit card statement after the holidays, getting on the scale, or receiving a test score? That number can be hard to dispute, but the awareness the measurement brings is invaluable.
What’s even harder to measure is the perceptions others have about your performance. Especially if they are not giving you direct feedback. For example, trust can be harder to measure, and research shows that individuals are often very unaware of how much or little they are trusted.
One high-level team of individuals I worked with in the training industry last year was experiencing many conflicts and a low level of trust. The switch to fully remote work created a lot of trust and communication issues between members of this leadership team. The group completed a team trust assessment measuring three elements that have been shown to influence trust most (i.e., Expertise/Execution, Relationships, and Consistency.)
Zenger Folkman 2023—Team Trust Assessment
While everyone knew there were some trust issues, every team member was surprised at how negative the results were for the team.
Some of the most negative items are listed in the table below.
Zenger Folkman—Team Trust 2023
Seeing the results of the trust assessment had a direct and immediate impact on the team and their interactions with each other. One team member commented, “I knew that I had a few trust issues, but when I saw how this was negatively impacting everyone on the team, I was shocked.” They all met with the team leaders and discussed the actions they were willing to take.
Why Accurate Measurement Influences Movement
Only when we have an accurate measurement of something are we able to do something about it. The problem is staying in the unknown and assuming that everything is fine. Vironika Tugaleva wisely said: “To know yourself, you must sacrifice the illusion that you already do.”
After eight months, this group of executives repeated the survey. The results are shown in the graph below. The scores on all dimensions were above the 75th percentile.
Zenger Folkman—Team Trust Assessment 2023
Providing an accurate measure of performance allowed this group to acknowledge their problems and motivated them to improve. In effect, this was the result of a lot of small actions by each team member in addition to the encouragement and support from the team leader.
Where to Begin? With Good Measurement
Most people overestimate the positives and the negatives; good measurement is critical to individual and organizational improvement. The world is filled with immense amounts of data points. Your phone probably knows more about you than you know about yourself. Start gathering more feedback and becoming more aware of the perceptions others have about your performance. Most people accept that measurement/feedback is helpful, but too often, I hear, “Yes, I did that several years ago, and it was insightful.” When I hear that, I ask, “Has anything changed in your organization or personal life in the last several years.” Typically, I hear, “Yes, almost everything has shifted a bit.” Well then, time for another measurement.
