A curious fact about office life?

Most companies end up measuring what’s easiest to measure rather than the things they actually care about.

So activity stats and response times get logged in

spreadsheets and fancy graphs. But no-one ever asks if the metric is measuring the outcome it was meant to measure.

And because companies reward what they measure, this way of thinking trickles down to employees too.

So

Andy from Accounts closes month-end as quickly as he can, whether or not he understands the numbers. Linda from Legal reviews all her clauses for loopholes but never asks if the deal makes sense in the first place. And Sid from Sales logs every interaction with potential customers but doesn’t listen to a word those customers say.

The end result is a workforce

which feeds various dashboards just to keep the boss happy while the stuff that REALLY matters (like whether staff trust each other, whether the work is creating value and whether people are solving problems or just acting like they’re solving problems) gets forgotten.

It might sound like I’m saying KPIs are the enemy and employees should bin them all

off.

I’m not.

If hitting a bunch of metrics is how you get judged at work, I think you SHOULD do your best to hit them.

After all, that’s the game you’ve signed up to play.

But ticking every box at work doesn't produce satisfaction any more than measuring the square footage of your house produces a house that feels like home.

So don’t confuse hitting a bunch of KPIs with living the working life you want to live.

You’ll know you’re doing this if you’re asking yourself questions like “am I being productive enough?”, “am I getting paid enough?” and “am I on track?” instead of questions like "does this work matter to me?", "do I want to be here?" and "is

this role actually a fit?".

In other words, the metrics might say you're doing fine.

But if you’re measuring the wrong thing, you can score 10/10 on every metric and still feel like something's off with your job.

Enter my new group coaching program, The Inside Job.

The program isn’t designed to have you blow up your life and quit your job tomorrow. But it is designed to give you a fresh pair of eyes on the job you've already got so you can win where it

matters most to you.

The first call takes place at 7.30pm UK Time (2.30pm EDT, 11.30am PDT) tonight.

That’s 10 hours from now.

If you missed my previous emails with the logistics, the “founder’s pricing” and the special bonus, all the details are in the p.s. below.

If you’re ready to jump in, here’s the link:

The Inside Job

To fulfilment,

Tom