Anne’s Measurable Factors
In Anne’s situation, to say that the team needed to “improve staff relations” was not specific enough to direct team members to engage in behaviors that served the goal of improved relations. To recommend that team members paraphrase each other’s points of view in meetings was a specific way to improve team relations. Paraphrasing may seem an overly simplistic exercise. But when the right set of simple interdependent behaviors are chosen and applied simultaneously, they prove to be the key behaviors necessary to break through a logjam
Anne chose to identify and manage three Key Factors. In terms of business results, Anne had numerical revenue goals for her business unit. She also believed that her team could best meet revenue goals by redesigning their sales process. The timeline they had to achieve both the redesign and their revenue goal was one year.
Usually the leader and team behavior lists contain 3-5 items each. This allows for the individual behaviors to build upon one another and form a synergy of key interactions that will make the difference for the business. On Anne’s leader behavior list, the first four items outlined specific ways in which she could continually clarify roles for her team. All team interaction items addressed the issue of improving staff relations. These two lists identified the critical actions they all needed to make on a daily basis in order to achieve business success.
When you believe you and your client have successfully created a measurable list for each Key Factor, you can take the “movie camera” test — if the leader and the team were to engage in these behaviors during day-to-day interactions, could someone watching a movie of these interactions identify the desired behaviors? Could an observer recognize the behavioral expectations set forth by the leader?
This level of specificity can aid the coach as she encourages the leader and team to enact their plan on a continual basis. Both the executive and the coach can inquire about frequency and quality. How many times do they see these behaviors in meetings? Are they consistently and effectively used in every team meeting, whether the leader is present or not? Are expectations clear and do team members seek the leader’s support or clarification? Reinforcement of these specific and observable behaviors begin to affect how the team does business.
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