Andrew DiDio

The Value of Metrics in Achieving Your Business Goals

September 2, 2022 by Andrew DiDio Leave a Comment

How do you measure success?

Often, we resort to how we feel about the job we have completed or other subjective goals. If our feelings are positive, then we claim success. The issue is feelings can be fleeting or misleading and goals can be vague and unmeasurable.

One reason many people struggle to mark success is they do not have numbers or metrics attached to their goals. This is not for lack of effort, but often, employees do not know where to start or what questions to ask. There are pieces of your job that will not be numerically gauged, however, if you think creatively, you can almost always find numbers that can tell the story of your success.

SMART Goals

Prior to identifying goals, we first must understand how goals should be written in order to objectively measure success. A common goal-setting concept is called SMART.

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Relevant

T – Time-Sensitive

When we identify a goal that we want to hold for the next quarter we ask ourselves a few questions to ensure our goal is SMART.

Specific: Is this goal specific or vague? Will I be able to know if I completed this goal by the end of the period or will it be left up to “point-of-view?”

Measurable: Can you mark success based on a black-and-white determination? If possible, is there a number associated with your goal?

Attainable: Do you have the resources and time to achieve this goal by the end of the period? Will you be able to fulfill your other duties AND achieve success with this goal?

Relevant: Does this goal warrant the time and resources required for achievement? Will this goal help the company be more successful?

Time-Sensitive: Have you identified a time constraint or is this goal potentially never-ending?

It is important to set goals, but make sure that at the end of the period you are able to objectively claim success. Rather than state a goal of “complete more prospect meetings,” include metrics. For instance, you could say, “by the end of June, I will have completed 18 prospect meetings face-to-face, averaging 6 per month and 1-2 per week.” As long as you have the resources to achieve this goal and the goal will help the company be successful, then this goal is SMART.

What, How, Who?

Now that we understand SMART goals, we turn our attention to 3 important questions everyone should ask when identifying business metrics that will help you achieve your SMART goals:

First, what business metrics should you track?

Second, how often should you track your business metrics?

Third, who is accountable for your business metrics?

What business metrics should I track?

The first and most important piece of managing business metrics is determining the what. It might take some time and tinkering to determine the best set of business metrics. Think about your last review with your supervisor. How did they measure your success? Perhaps you should ask your peers or colleagues how they claim success at work. Are you able to back your quarterly SMART goals into metrics that you track monthly, weekly, or even daily?

Some people identify too many numbers to track and when you are tracking so many different numbers, you lose sight of what is most important. A good rule of thumb is thinking through what 5 numbers you could determine success of your job, department, or company if you happened to take an extended leave of absence.

If you are in the Admin Department perhaps you track average days for accounts receivable, G&A expenses last month, or employee satisfaction through a tool like OfficeVibe. Think how you could back into monthly or weekly goals based on quarterly goals. As we were in our hiring phase last quarter, we knew that for every person we hired we would have to perform 5 HR Interviews. We set a goal of completing 15 HR Interviews by the end of the quarter which was 5 per month and 1-2 per week. We wanted to hire 3 people and by quarter end, we had succeeded.

If you are on the Sales Team, you could track won revenue for the previous quarter or product gross margin percentage last month. You could even get more granular and set a goal to make 50 sales calls per week or schedule 15 business reviews with clients every month.

If Operations, maybe you track client satisfaction from customer surveys, monthly recurring revenue, or reaching a specific response time for client requests.

For me, there are 5 numbers that help me understand the state of our company:

Customer Satisfaction (through a feedback tool called SmileBack)
Earnings % of Revenue
Technical Services Gross Margin %
“Prospective” Monthly Recurring Revenue Dollars
Monthly Administrative Dollars

You may go through different seasons requiring different metrics. If you are trying to achieve certain SMART goals, it is important to set your metrics based on those goals and create incremental goals to achieve your quarterly and annual goals.

From your numbers you should be able to fill in the gaps so you know exactly where you can improve and where you can celebrate success.

How often should I track my business metrics?

The second piece of tracking metrics is determining your timeline. Different metrics require different timelines. However, if you have a goal that is longer than a week, identify the incremental weekly metrics that will help you achieve your monthly, quarterly, or annual goals.

For instance, if your SMART goal is to land $10,000 of new business revenue within the next quarter, you know that you need to land approximately $3,333 per month, and $770 per week (assuming 13 weeks). Rather than arriving at the end of the quarter only to be surprised that you did not achieve your goal, measuring your goal every week allows you time to finetune your process mid-period.

At KiteTech, we track success through daily dashboards and weekly and monthly scorecards. At our annual planning meeting we identify our SMART goals for the following year. We revisit these goals at quarterly meetings, but our weekly scorecards help us determine whether we are on track to reach our annual goals.

Who is accountable for my business metrics?

The final piece for measuring business metrics is crucial. Patrick Lencioni’s fourth dysfunction in his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, is “avoidance of accountability.” Without accountability, a company has little chance of survival. It is crucial that every business metric has ONE accountable owner.

Business metrics can be team goals, but when the dust settles, the success or failure must be delegated to one team member. As the Controller, I am accountable for multiple metrics, one of which is the Monthly Administrative Expenses. I am ruthless when someone wants to add dollars to my account because I know that I am accountable for every dollar spent. Accountability creates a sense of ownership of your department or task. In a sense, I feel as if I own the Monthly Administrative Expenses.

If you find that you have more than a handful of numbers that you are accountable towards, start to delegate numbers to your team. Earlier I mentioned having 5 numbers. “5” is not a magical number, but it emphasizes that we must limit the quantity of numbers that we track so that we do not become overwhelmed and fail to succeed. If you feel that you have too many strings to pull, you probably need to delegate or be more attentive to the significance of certain numbers over others.

The last piece of accountability is a weekly and monthly check-in process with your team. In your team meetings, everyone should explain whether they are On-Track or Off-Track. We use a tool called BrightGauge that allows us to quickly identify On-Track or Off-Track goals and metrics and enter any notes. We are able to review all weekly team goals in under 10 minutes and often any Off-Track goals lead to To-Dos or Issues that are brought up later in the meeting.

Conclusion

Management consultant, Peter Drucker, once said, “what gets measured gets done.” The antithesis of this is also true, “what is not measured does not get done.” When you are asked about your success are you able to give an objective response? Failure is not for lack of determination or effort but is often the result of poor metrics and incremental management. The next time your team sets goals, think about how those goals can be made SMART. Back those goals into monthly, weekly, and daily metrics and now when you get to the end of the quarter and someone asks if you were successful, you can know whole-heartedly that yes, you found success.

Andrew DiDio

Controller
Kite Technology Group

Strategies for Maintaining a Healthy Culture in a Remote World

June 7, 2022 by Andrew DiDio Leave a Comment

As the Controller at KiteTech, one of my roles is to oversee all HR functions including interviewing potential job candidates. Honestly, the interviews are just as much for me as they are for the prospective employees. As a recent interview was concluding I jokingly apologized for all of my pointed questions and offered to answer his questions. The applicant looked me in the eye from across the screen and asked a question that I have been asked often…”Andrew, what is your favorite part of working at KiteTech?”

I smiled. As much as I was interviewing to see if he would be a good fit at Kite, he had begun interviewing me on why he should want to work here.

My answer was simple. Our culture is focused on relationships, and we go to great lengths to ensure our employees are well-connected.

When everyone went home two years ago, a topic that frequently came up in our leadership meetings was “How do we ensure our employees feel connected with their teammates?”. We heard from some peers that their employees were not doing so well and were dealing with the consequences of extreme loneliness. We wanted to make sure our employees did not feel isolated, alone on the proverbial “remote work island.” As we brainstormed how to encourage employee engagement, we realized that the only fix was through intentional strategies focused on relationships and connections. Below I share some of the strategies that we found most effective in maintaining a healthy, highly engaged culture.

Strategies for Maintaining a Healthy Culture

Engage Employees Daily

Mother Teresa once said, “Loneliness is the leprosy of the modern world.” Humans need human interaction on a daily basis or loneliness can quickly seep in. One of the best ways to ensure your team does not become a lonely and isolated team is to be intentional about engaging with employees daily.

One of our Core Values is “Embrace Teamwork.” Each employee connects daily with their teammates through daily huddles, one-on-one’s with their supervisors, and attending company-wide meetings. Whenever we attend video calls, we always keep our cameras on. We believe that face-to-face interaction throughout the day is key to having a healthy remote work experience.

Occasionally a cat will slink up and jam the keys, or a nephew will run up calling out, “Uncle Andrew!” but this has never been a burden, but instead has helped develop an even greater personal connection. Throughout each day our employees chat over Microsoft Teams to solve technical issues, highlight employee successes, and post funny comments. The office banter has merely transitioned from over cubicle walls to over computer screens. Engaging employees daily can be the difference between loneliness and success in the workplace.

Your Personal Takeaway: Make it the norm to have cameras on during every video call.

Express Employee Appreciation

Teams rise or fall based on if their members feel appreciated. Often employees leave jobs early not because they want a higher salary or a different position. What they want is recognition for a job well done. They want to feel like a valuable member of the team.

One of our favorite tools to ensure employees feel appreciated is Bonusly. Sent in the form of a public tweet and often with a meme, Bonusly encourages employees to publicly recognize their peers by sending bonus points. The points can then be redeemed for gift cards. Personally, I have laughed out loud just from visiting Bonusly. Today, I witnessed memes of dancing stick figures, a cat typing away on a computer, and of course SpongeBob!

On a serious note, as a manager, your employees need to know you value their efforts as part of your team. I often ask myself if I am being a “first-class noticer.” Am I being intentional about noticing others’ efforts, especially those not on my direct team? It is important for our teams to communicate, especially to express gratitude and appreciation for a job well done.

Your Personal Takeaway: Make it a daily habit to notice one person in your organization and show them appreciation with a thoughtful email or public encouragement. Bonus: Find someone that is outside of your direct team to thank them for their efforts!

Encourage In-Person Events

Regardless of how you interact virtually, nothing replaces the in-person connection. Giving a high five, a pat on the back, or a random comment as you pass in the hallway can be mood-defining and an encouragement to employees.

A few months after we started working remotely our employees began asking for opportunities to connect in-person. Once it was safe, we began hosting Happy Hours at local restaurants and scheduling lunches when people were in the office. Even though our employees were spread throughout the country, we wanted to encourage in-person connections. Our West Coast employees occasionally meet up for dinners and hikes and we even hosted our “KiteTech West” employees in Maryland this past March!

Your Personal Takeway: Schedule a Happy Hour with your local employees. If you are feeling extra generous, pick up the tab!

Embrace Mutual Interests

Relationships strengthen when people are able to relate on a personal level and connect outside of the work atmosphere. Though an employer cannot force employees to be interested in similar hobbies, it is important for employers to know their employees’ likes and dislikes and develop opportunities to connect over these hobbies.

Many of our employees share mutual interests and KiteTech encourages employees to embrace these similarities. Our employees have started leadership book clubs with colleagues, organized faith-based small groups, scheduled video game tournaments and even a virtual art class. A night would not be complete without our employees battling over their favorite video games like Fortnite or League of Legends and tuning in to watch each other stream Slay the Spire!

Your Personal Takeaway: Ask some of your employees what they enjoy doing outside of work and schedule yourself to connect over that hobby…you might even find a new hobby yourself!

Employ Remote Culture-Building Tools

One of the keys to building a healthy remote office culture is through being creative with the remote tools that are available. Though employees may not be able to interact in-person, especially for offices like ours that are spread throughout the country, it is important to employ culture-building tools that are suitable for a remote workforce.

A few years ago, KiteTech leaders put together a Fun Committee to be in charge of planning different fun events. Made up of members from different departments, the Fun Committee has led the charge in ensuring our employees are connecting through monthly online events. Some tools that our team has used include virtual movie platforms to allow our employees to remotely watch a movie together and virtual escape rooms. Thankfully, we have always escaped! We also have hosted holiday parties and monthly birthday celebrations over Teams to ensure our employees are connecting regardless of their location.

Your Personal Takeaway: Plan a virtual hangout by watching a movie together, trying an escape room, or laughing hysterically while playing an online game (Jackbox Games are my favorites!).

Conclusion

Maintaining a thriving work culture in a remote or hybrid world can feel daunting. I would love to tell you that every event and tool has been a success, but it has taken some trial and error to learn what works best for our team. It’s important to stay intentional about trying new initiatives to keep your staff engaged and your culture healthy. I hope that the strategies shared in this article provided you with some fresh ideas for your business, and if you choose to implement one or more of our takeaways, we would love to hear about it in the comments.

Andrew DiDio

Controller
Kite Technology Group

Be Ready for Takeoff: Identifying Your Core Values

December 9, 2020 by Andrew DiDio Leave a Comment

I never understood the routine and instincts required for flying until I hopped on a charter flight from Dallas to Colorado Springs. Buckling into my seat, I was ready, but the pilot was inspecting every crevice of the plane, running his hand along the wings, securing the hatch, and fine-tuning the vast array of switches and dials on the dash. Before takeoff he even strapped a manual to his thigh to remember the subtle checks. Once in the air he told me about the thousands of hours he flew from client sites to conferences to Mt. Rushmore for a daytrip with his grandson. He detailed events that might happen in the air and how he would respond. His checklist never moved from his thigh as he notated numbers from the gauges on the dashboard. Flying seemed so simple, but as we flew over the gritty landscape of northern Texas, I realized that flying demanded routine.

Like the pilot checking and re-checking his flight plan, “world-class” companies have a plan and routine for success. When we focus on certain fundamental routines, our culture embodies those routines, making them habitual. Company issues seem less daunting when the team can point to the dashboard gauge that screams “low altitude, your culture is crashing!”

The KiteTech Flight Plan is our blinking emergency light. This list of the 26 most important principles indicates where we are losing cabin pressure and our culture is failing. Company problems can be traced to failing at the Flight Plan. So, if there are issues with clients, employees, or the trajectory of the company we review the Flight Plan… and then check again.

Our 7 core Flight Plan principles, the Flight Fundamentals, are our “thigh checklist.” We believe that these are the core principles of any successful company and for KiteTech, these are the “must-haves.” Chick-fil-A president, Dan Kathy, once said, “repetition yields constants. Constants create cultures.”

The Flight Fundamentals below have become routine and drive how we hire, fire, promote, and grow our company culture.

1. Deliver Extraordinary Client Service

It is difficult to find ways to differentiate your company in a world that is ultra-connected. If your company fails at keeping a client, there are thousands of others about to swoop in for a chance to “woo” your clients unless…unless your company creates a client experience leaving a client wanting more. Excellence is the bottom-line. Our clients know that we will do what is best for them, regardless of the cost. Excellence is costly. It may cost you staying late one night to fix a server issue or provide a hard drive free of charge, but excellence breeds relationship. When we commit to giving each client our best, our clients trust us to do our job. This loyalty has inspired our clients to promote KiteTech to other potential clients.

2. Think Like an Owner

Owners think at a high-level, constantly aware of the implications on clients, employees, and the health of the company. If a solution to a specific task may make one department’s job easier while crippling another department, our desire to see the success of the company trumps our desire to see success in our own department. Being on the same team helps us align in our vision for addressing problems inside or outside our organization.

3. Always Ask “Why?”

Regardless of organizational position, the most solid ideas will always be part of the solution. Our employees constantly push us to improve processes that have gone unnoticed. If processes are illogical, we encourage our employees to speak up and ask “why?” Employees are on the frontlines and have a different view as to the success of a process than does a leader.

4. Honor Commitments

Every relationship is built on trust. If a client or colleague has trouble trusting your ability to follow through, then the whole company is affected. Clients become impatient, colleagues waste time sending follow-up emails, and there are even negative financial implications. It is imperative that we are in communication about timelines, backlogs, and unforeseen delays. When we refuse to communicate, we erode trust. When we honor commitments and communicate when unable to fulfill our timeline, our clients and teammates feel appreciated and valued.

5. Embrace the Tension Between Confidence and Humility

The goal of the company is to get better, not satisfy your personal ego. Think about ideas detached from the promoter of the idea. You might be biased towards one of your ideas or against one of your enemy’s ideas, but ideas once stated are free from being tied to an individual and can be discussed openly having checked your ego at the door. You can have confidence that you are talented enough to complete your job but reject the urge to allow confidence to morph into arrogance. Humility is a catalyst for teamwork, a required trait of all growing companies.

6. Relentlessly Solve Problems

The target of fixing any problem is a solution and falling short of a solution causes client concern. Our clients trust us to solve their technical problems. If unable, the client-company partnership is fractured. Employees at KiteTech are required to point to a potential solution whenever pointing out problems. Sometimes this requires creative thinking or asking for additional help when necessary. We have become solution-based, refusing to quit on a problem until we have a solution that is optimal for the client and for KiteTech.

7. Project Positivity

Only one person has control over your attitude…you! A negative attitude never led to solutions. When our employees have a positive attitude, even if they are facing a challenging problem, they still can trust that their colleagues/teammates are cheering them on. Choosing positivity orients our minds towards optimism and teamwork rather than pessimism and lonesomeness. We can have confidence in our ability and that of our company and teammates. At KiteTech, no problem that we face is solved alone.

We are now pulling away from the gate, but before you take off, think about the routines that you have created. Do your core principles align with your culture? Are these core principles routine? Are you creating the company culture that you want to embody? Do your employees make decisions based on these principles? If the answer to these questions is a resounding “yes,” then well done, you are well on your way! If the answer is “no,” then I want to encourage you to set aside time with your leadership team to intentionally identify your Flight Plan. If you need inspiration, check out the KiteTech Flight Plan. Remember, to make your Flight Plan routine you will need to go through much fine-tuning, inspections, and checks…and re-checks.

Don’t let the fear of falling keep you from flying.

Andrew DiDio

SMART Goals

What, How, Who?

What business metrics should I track?

How often should I track my business metrics?

Who is accountable for my business metrics?

Conclusion

Andrew DiDio

Strategies for Maintaining a Healthy Culture

Engage Employees Daily

Express Employee Appreciation

Encourage In-Person Events

Embrace Mutual Interests

Employ Remote Culture-Building Tools

Conclusion

Andrew DiDio

Adam Atwell