How Will I Measure My Life?

As I kick off my new adventure, I am catching up on reading and spending quality time thinking about my work life thus far and where I want to go next. I like to write. Fortunately, I have a history of sharing ideas with people worldwide, so I decided to post some content that interests me personally. I hope you enjoy these musings, and I would love to hear your thoughts. We are all a work in progress.

Today, I wanted to send out something inspirational. I wanted to pause and look at how I hope to be measured when it is all said and done. I am a big believer in people's respect for what gets inspected - so I have always strived to ensure the teams I work with define their annual and long-term goals in measurable ways. And then they stick to them. For example, I always require my Product Teams to follow Amazon's annual Long Range Planning method. More details on this topic will be discussed in a future post.

I apply this notion to my career, leadership style, and my life. I spend time writing my own personal key performance indicators (KPIs). I then check to see if my KPIs align with my work.

I was having a philosophical discussion with an old friend recently, who pointed me to a video from Clay Christensen near the end of his life. Of course, I have known about Mr. Christensen since his seminal work, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail , and its follow-up, The Innovator's Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Healthcare . I have incorporated his theory of Jobs-to-be-done into my modelH framework and EVERY company I have worked at for the past decade.??

Mr. Christensen gave a Ted Talk on "How Will You Measure Your Life? ". It struck me as something I should share with others. He provides some significant observations on how to forge a path to fulfillment. In summary, he breaks it down into three simple questions:

1. How can I be sure I will succeed and be happy in my career?
2. How can I ensure that my relationships with my spouse, children, extended family, and close friends become an enduring source of happiness?
3. How can I be sure I will live a life of integrity?

Do yourself a favor and take 19 minutes to watch this great video.

A pessimist might say you get paid to do the work, not to like it. That is certainly one approach. By all means, I am not advocating that all work should be likable. That fact is not realistic. But to paraphrase Dr. King , "The arc of the moral [career] is long, but it bends toward justice [and happiness too]." If you are unhappy at work, it is often just a matter of missed expectations.

For example, you may find yourself in an unideal scenario, such as if your work scope, job role, or company strategy changes from your vision of what it should be. Hey, it is ok. You should be willing to change—cheese gets moved. And change is both inevitable and awesome. As Mr. Christensen points out, it keeps companies from failing. Competition forces change, and change is most often a good thing.

But is it good for you? That is a fundamental question to ask yourself. You can only answer it when you understand your mind. That means having a set of personal KPIs against which to benchmark. I have learned that the bottom line drives everything else in business. After all, it takes a "margin" to chase a "mission." However, financial measures are far from the only thing that should drive our work lives. This statement must be coupled with another that links it to our personal mission. When you can achieve both, you are truly in a happy place.

I advocate that you cannot achieve both without careful planning and understanding of what you value. Spend some time making your own V2MOM as we used to do at Salesforce; what you find may surprise you.

More to come. To your health, Kevin

Kevin Riley

p.s.

Looking ahead, I will revisit my modelH business model canvassing , which I developed a decade ago, to see what changes I should apply. I also plan to share some ideas on improving healthcare, focusing on Value-based Care, AI, and the role of digital health.