What is your leadership metric?

There are many ways to measure success; how do you know you are successful as you lead your family, Cub Scout troop or Fortune 100 company? Lord Kelvin stated, "when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it." Each leader has a style where they are comfortable and have found success. Most often, it will be borne out of personality and experience of what they have seen works. Some experiences will provide negative training, and the leader will commit to running their organization directly opposite of their experience. Paying attention to the numbers can help understand your leadership effectiveness.

A friend was discussing his job transition into a new field and took a significant pay cut to right-size his work/life balance. His last company would grind through managers at a rate of three per year after demanding 100 hour weeks at the job and sparse vacation days. The union labor force was competent and stable, allowing for managers to be overworked, quit when exhausted and quickly replaced. Leadership had determined that these managers were expendable for the short-term gains. I mentioned that even with the pay cut, his hourly rate probably skyrocketed due to the normalized hours at the new job where he was finding great satisfaction.

As a leader of people, your responsibility goes beyond the easy metric of units produced, dollars collected and the least amount of time spent with each customer. Your investment in those you lead will pay dividends beyond the basic spreadsheet. Like any investment, you want to understand your returns. Lord Kelvin's statement reminds us that once we can quantify what is important then we "know something about it"; so, what do you know about your people? 

Going Further: Other than required company metrics, what do you use? How do you track the success of those you have led? How do you know that you are not a negative learning experience for your people? What else should be asked?

How did you define wealth during your youth?

There is always that one family that sticks out in your mind that exemplified wealth when you were growing up. There is something about how they lived, acted or who they knew that just sets them apart, etching this image in our minds as one element of what it means to be rich. Even if your family has money, there is that other family in the next town, you met on an international vacation or that has a bigger jet. There is always something that stands out as just too opulent.

A kiwi and a toothbrush are mine. A classmate often brought kiwis for lunch, and I had never seen this strange exotic fruit before. The fact that he could afford to eat them often was a sure indication he was rich. The other indication of having money to burn, was a scene in the original movie Arthur (1981), starring Dudley Moore. In the scene, Arthur chastises his butler, Hobson, for giving him a toothbrush that he had used the day before. Hobson knew that Arthur never used the same toothbrush more than once. I sat dumbstruck for the next several minutes trying to imagine having enough money that I would use a new toothbrush every day and throw the old one away.

These impressions stick with us and inform how we define monetary satisfaction, determine wealth and if we have "made it". Your memory may be a pair of sneakers, a car, wearing a particular clothing brand, location of family vacations or something majestic like a kiwi or toothbrush. This is an opportunity to be reminded of how wealth is measured as an adult. What is your standard; homes, accessories, family, vacations, friends, time or something else? Metrics are important, we need to ensure we are measuring according to the right benchmark.

How has this youthful definition of wealth stayed with you? How have you achieved the wealth you defined in your youth? How do you define wealth? How do your decisions align with living a rich life?