How do you know who had a good week?

Think about the person in your office you consider your best worker. Now ask yourself what that judgement is actually based on.

Usually it is a feeling built from three things. He is always busy. He answers the phone quickly. He stays late.

None of those are performance. They are visibility.

What impression based judgement rewards

It rewards the people who are near you. The quiet one who handles forty things correctly in the back office is not seen. The one who talks about every problem he solved is.

It also rewards being busy over being effective, which is worse. The man who takes three hours over a task that should take one looks more committed than the one who finishes in forty minutes and goes quiet.

And it rewards being late, which is the strangest one of all. Staying till nine often means the day was badly organised, but it reads as dedication, and everybody in the office learns what gets noticed.

What is worth counting instead

Not everything, and nothing complicated. For most roles two or three facts are enough, and they should be things the person affects directly.

For somebody handling enquiries: how many came to him, how many he responded to the same day, how many became orders. For somebody in dispatch: how many went out on the promised date.

The point is not to grade people. It is that a number lets you have a conversation about the work rather than about the person. Nobody argues with you were slow this week in the same way they argue with you are not serious.

And it means the quiet effective person finally gets seen.

Name your best performer. Now write down the figure that proves it. Do you have one?

Deciding what is actually worth counting for each role is work we do with owners often. Tell us the roles and we will suggest the numbers.