How do you measure the impact and effectiveness of your leadership on organizational performance?

It's important to know what you want to stand for as a leader. SMART goals are great for accomplishing tasks or projects, and OKR's can keep you on track, but the real value here is knowing what your brand is and how you want to live behind that brand. Many leaders don't know who they are, what they want to be, and why they are even in the seat. It's hard to optimize for impact and have goals as a leader if you don't know your own why or purpose. Define who you are, why you are there, what you want to be known for, and what values you have, and only then you can start to set a chartered path towards the long term growth.

?? Define your leadership goals aligned with the organizational vision and strategy. ?? Identify key indicators such as employee engagement, customer satisfaction, innovation, productivity, quality, revenue, and social responsibility. ?? Use SMART criteria to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals. ?? Defining your leadership goals and indicators is crucial for assessing your impact and effectiveness. ?? Align your goals with the organization's vision and strategy to ensure that your leadership efforts contribute to its success. ?? This process enables you to evaluate and improve your leadership practices, driving positive change and achieving desired outcomes.

?? Define your leadership goals and indicators aligned with organizational vision, mission, values, and strategy. ?? Use SMART criteria to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound leadership goals. ?? Collect feedback and data from various sources and perspectives, such as surveys, interviews, and 360-degree feedback. ?? Gather qualitative and quantitative information about your leadership performance and outcomes. ?? Measuring your leadership impact and effectiveness requires a systematic approach.

Employee surveys are always a great way to collect feedback, but the act of doing the survey is only the beginning. The best organizations create impact by collecting the data, analyzing the data, engaging their employees in to understand what the data means, and then creating task forces or small groups to act on the data. You must create a two way door of information with surveys that showcase you are willing to listen, and make impact. This begins with the right framework, but also the right leaders in the organization who take the feedback seriously.

?? Analyze and evaluate the results of your feedback and data collection. ?? Compare actual results with expected results and identify gaps, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. ?? Consider the context, validity, reliability, and limitations of your feedback and data. ?? Utilize analytical and evaluative techniques and frameworks such as SWOT analysis, gap analysis, root cause analysis, balanced scorecard, and return on investment. Analyzing and evaluating the results of your feedback and data collection is essential to gain insights into your leadership impact and effectiveness. Compare the actual results with your expected outcomes, and identify areas of improvement and opportunities for growth.

?? Communicate and report the findings of your analysis and evaluation. ?? Present the findings in a clear, concise, and compelling manner. ?? Use appropriate formats, channels, and media for effective communication. ?? Tailor your communication and report to the audience, highlighting key messages, insights, and recommendations. ?? Utilize communication and reporting skills and tools such as storytelling, visualization, infographics, dashboards, and presentations. Communicating and reporting the findings of your analysis and evaluation is crucial to share your insights and recommendations. Present the information in a clear and concise manner, using formats and media that resonate with your audience.

?? Take action and implement the changes, improvements, and solutions identified in your analysis. ?? Monitor, review, and adjust your actions and outcomes to ensure their effectiveness. ?? Measure and evaluate the impact of your actions on leadership and organizational performance. ?? Utilize action plans, project management, change management, feedback loops, and evaluation cycles. Taking action and following up on your findings is essential to translate insights into tangible results. Implement the changes and improvements identified in your analysis, and monitor their effectiveness. Continuously review and adjust your actions to ensure they align with your leadership goals and objectives.

?? Reflect on your leadership journey and identify lessons learned, best practices, challenges, and opportunities. ?? Seek new knowledge, skills, and perspectives to enhance your leadership development. ?? Embrace learning methods such as coaching, mentoring, training, peer learning, and self-directed learning. Continuous learning and improvement are crucial for enhancing your leadership impact and effectiveness. Reflect on your experiences, extracting valuable insights that inform your future actions. Identify best practices, challenges, and opportunities that can shape your leadership approach. Stay open to new knowledge, skills, and perspectives, seeking growth and development.

I describe this as having an open heart and open mind along the way. You must be willing to get uncomfortable, learn from feedback, make mistakes, and move ahead. The best leaders are focused on making an impact in everything they do, but they know they're not perfect and they need learnings along the way to develop. Stay humble, stay hungry, and always be wiling to listen to others around you.

Retention rates and promotions are another metric you can measure to understand leadership impact and effectiveness. Teams that have low attrition rates are generally working in a strong culture, with good leaders who are focused on developing their people. Teams with a high retention rate signal a leadership team or manager that is disconnected, and not providing the proper level of support. In addition, the number of people who are promoted in an organization are a sign of leadership effectiveness to help the overall development of all. Teams that are stagnant in promotions showcase a lack of investment of time, knowledge, education, and support.