Success Criteria

Knowing how your department is evaluated is critical, whether or not delivering directly on them is your responsibility. Make sure you’re familiar with these three areas.

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. Quantifying efficiency is sometimes difficult so it may be a bit more challenging for you to find these benchmarks compared to those who are on the revenue side of the balance sheet.

Know Industry Averages
Understanding how your area stacks up to the industry average helps you anticipate management actions/reactions. Putting context around your results helps you make better decisions and positions you as someone with a good grasp on the broader implications of departmental actions.

Track Your Numbers
Whenever possible, quantify the contributions you’re making in your position. As you capture this information, drop it into a file that you review periodically. Make a “cheat sheet” that you can refer to so that others can appropriately value your contribution.