Understanding Strategy Beyond KPIs

Leadership Insight -  Beyond the Numbers - Cultural KPIs According to Gallup, only 23% of employees worldwide are engaged at work. Why? Because too many leaders focus on performance and forget about people. Too often, success is measured only by traditional KPIs—revenue, output, efficiency, and deadlines. But here’s the truth: High-performing organizations aren’t built by metrics alone. They’re built by creating a culture where people feel safe, valued, and inspired—across every department. Whether it’s accounting, marketing, logistics, customer service, or operations—every team member deserves the same level of support, empowerment, and development. This is why I focus on more than just performance strategies in my coaching and leadership sessions. I believe our role as leaders is not just to drive results, but to develop people—to help them reach their full potential both professionally and personally. That means: - Building psychological safety so employees feel free to speak up, offer ideas, and raise concerns. - Fostering personal and professional growth alongside performance. - Creating cultures of trust, empathy, and accountability that drive engagement and innovation. And yes, culture can—and should—be measured. Here are a few examples of cultural leadership KPIs that matter just as much as traditional ones: - Employee engagement and satisfaction scores - Psychological safety indicators (e.g., surveys, 360 feedback) - Team collaboration and knowledge-sharing - Retention, internal mobility, and leadership development rates - Alignment with company values and behaviors When leaders prioritize both results and relationships, the outcome is a thriving culture that fuels sustainable success—across every area of the business. Let’s stop separating performance from humanity. Let’s lead in a way that transforms both people and outcomes. How are you measuring success beyond the numbers in your organization?

Have you ever seen one department blamed for a system or strategy issue because their result is where it's showing up? In B2B tech, I see this constantly: → "We have a marketing problem" (but it's really a product differentiation issue) → "Sales isn't closing" (but we're spread across too many segments) → "Pipeline is down" (but the market assumptions in our plan are wrong) Marketing and sales are the tip of the spear to the market. Problems originating in other parts of the business sometimes get blamed on them when the source may be a COMPANY STRATEGY problem, rather than a departmental failure. Before you fire that CMO or CRO - consider if it really IS a pipeline issue... or if there's a systems or strategy issue. Some tips from today's article: 1) Name the systems issue - As you explore part of the business that’s struggling, look for the interconnected parts that might be contributing rather than treating issues in silos 2) Listen more deeply to customer feedback - Customers don't know your org chart. While listening can be a cacophony of opinions, painful truths are often publicly shared and reveal systemic issues that span multiple departments. Pay attention to complaints that seem to touch multiple areas of your business—these are often symptoms of deeper systems problems that require cross-functional solutions rather than departmental fixes. 3) Create space for constructive truth-telling - As a leadership team, you need to foster the trust and structure that allows systemic issues to be named and addressed, even when they implicate other functions or expose uncomfortable realities. 4) Be specific about the HOW, not just the numbers - Many companies use their financial plan and KPIs as their strategy. Their annual plans and quarterly goals describe the numbers more than HOW to get there and what trade-offs are necessary. Make sure your annual and quarterly plans include how you expect the market and competitors to evolve, how you define and allocate investments to different audiences, regions, and verticals, and how you plan to differentiate in the short and long term. 5) Make hard decisions, don’t kick the can down the road - Systems problems rarely resolve on their own. And because they are diffuse, generally not time-bound, and have no right answer, it’s hard to make quick progress on them. But choosing to act, even imperfectly, is better than pretending the issue doesn’t exist. 6) Keep asking: What are we missing? Periodically step back and ask what might be hiding in plain sight - is there an overlooked “connective tissue” that could unlock progress? As an executive team, it’s easy to get deep in execution and run out of time for strategy. But if there’s illness in a part — it’s really important to consider the health of the system.

🎯 Most Leaders Miss This Hidden Truth About Strategy vs. KPIs Ever wonder why some companies crush their operations but can't innovate? Here's what years of leading teams to deliver against goals and metrics taught me: KPIs and Strategy are like oil and water - they serve different purposes, yet most leaders try to measure them the same way. Let me break this down: 📊 KPIs = Our "Protect Zone" • They measure what's known and proven • Based on historical data and benchmarks with a "floor" and a "ceiling." • Focus on reliability and efficiency • Help maintain what's already working 🚀 Strategy (OKRs) = Our "Push Zone" • They shape what's new and unknown • Built on future vision and possibilities • Focus on effectiveness and innovation • Help create what doesn't exist yet Here's the game-changing insight: You can't use the same mindset to measure strategic capabilities you use for operational ones. While KPIs look backward at data, strategy requires looking forward at leading signals - those early indicators that our new direction is starting to show promise. The key? KPIs help us watch what we need to protect as we push to build something new (Strategy). 💡 Question for my network: How do you balance maintaining current operational performance while pushing for innovation in your organization? #Leadership #Strategy #Innovation #KPIs #OKRs  #StrategicThinking