Right Metrics Key to Organization Success

“I don't know how keen we are to have problem solvers in government. The assessment is on who has spent maximum funds rather than who has solved a problem or achieved something. How can a bureaucrat innovate or disrupt amidst such a straight-jacketed approach to them?” Comment made by Aruna Sundarajan, secretary in the electronics and IT ministry at candid talks on performance and functioning, top bureaucrats had with the Government.

Leadership learning: Choosing right measures and assessing wisely is key to the success of a performance-driven company.

Resolving Dilemmas

There comes a stage in our life when we pause to ask ourselves, what is better - material fulfilment, or spiritual fulfilment?

To me, dealing with this dilemma is much the same as the way we might deal with our challenge of work-life balance - which is to choose to either: integrate, harmonize, treat them as continuum, or just make a choice between the two. I have come to the conclusion that it need not be the last, viz. an either or situation.

My first glimpse of a resolution to the dilemma came from something that Arianna Huffington, co-founder of Huffington Post said. She told Forbes magazine that while tend to think of success along two metrics - money and power, we need to add a third. “To live a life we truly want and deserve, and not just the lives settle for,” Huffington said, “we need a THIRD metric of success that goes beyond the two. The third metric consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving.”

To me, adding the third metric is a possible resolution to the dilemma of having to choose between material and spiritual fulfilment. Instead of treating the two as as an either/or choice,  what if we think of ways to either integrate,  harmonise, or treat them as a continuum?

Any thoughts?

What Is A True Success Metric?

“For me, a peaceful night's sleep means true success.” - Actor Jimmy Shergill

INSIGHT
Good things and bad things keep happening to us, but it's not what happens that affects us, it's how we react to it, that does. So there cannot be a better criteria of success than a good night's sleep. It proves that we have managed to win the daily wars raging inside us.

Choosing Life Priorities

“.... a third measure of success that goes beyond the two metrics of money and power, and consists of four pillars: well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving."
Together, those factors help you to take care of your psychological life and truly be successful….” - Arianna Huffington, Author and Columnist

Insight
This realisation dawned on Huffington after collapsing from overwork chasing money and power. Clarity on life's priorities usually comes after undergoing a life threatening experience. And that is something we understand only intellectually but fail to act on in time.