April 5, 2011 • Volume 2, Issue 7 • ISSN: 2154-3240

In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Valuing the Measurable
♦	Ask Amanda: My profitability targets are unrealistic, yet I still have to deliver. Suggestions?
♦	Practical Tips: Know Your Numbers

Valuing the Measurable

As the first quarter closes and we get ready to pay our taxes, numbers are top-of-mind for many of us. Astute executives understand that objective results—often expressed numerically--carry significantly more weight in most companies than subjective outcomes. Understanding how to leverage this bias to help achieve your business goals is an invaluable skill (see, that would be a subjective measure!).

Much of our corporate success criteria come from the time when the economy was based on manufacturing, so it’s heavily weighted toward measuring efficiency and quantifying effectiveness. Numbers are seen as somehow more factual, even though we all know that they can be used to prove or disprove anything, depending upon how things are calculated.
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	Often there’s a good reason and the real reason.

Practical Tips: Know Your Numbers

Knowing the criteria your company uses to evaluate your department is critical, whether delivering on them is your responsibility or not. Regardless of your level, make sure you understand these three areas in a topline way.

Understand Interrelationships
Understand how your department’s performance fits within the larger scope of the organization in order to prioritize your actions. For instance, if your function falls on the expense side of the balance sheet, you’re probably being judged on how efficiently you can deliver your product/service without impacting quality.
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My profitability targets are set by our parent company—and they’re unrealistic at best. However, I’m still expected to deliver. Suggestions? M.G., Washington, D.C.

The situation you’re in is unfortunately not unique. You need to have a conversation with your manager in order to appropriately manage expectations. Don’t expect this conversation to necessarily change your profitability targets, because that decision may be made at a very high level. Your responsibility at this point is to clearly and concisely provide your manager with your reasoning early in the process so that adjustments can be made.
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Recommended Resources

Be sure to leave a comment on Amanda's guest blog on cnbc.com regarding what kids need to learn now to ultimately reduce corporate suffering.

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About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation’s history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20-year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior-level corporate executives.