What The Colin Kaepernick Story Can Teach Us About KPIs

Earlier this month, Colin Kaepernick's former team, the San Francisco 49ers, took the field to play Super Bowl LIV in Miami. Of course, he was not in uniform. He hasn't been in an NFL team's uniform since 2016. His story, and the controversy surrounding it are well documented.

In the years since Kaepernick last took the field, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) has become a trendy term in business, and marketing in particular. Prior to that we simply called them goals, objectives or benchmarks. Simply explained, KPIs are the metric, or metrics, used to define the success of a given campaign or initiative.

Let that sink in for a minute and an interesting question emerges that leaders can learn from. Would the story have played out differently if Kaepernick had stated precise KPIs from the very beginning?

First, let's acknowledge there is a group of people who say Kaepernick, and everyone else, should stand for the national anthem under any circumstance. There is a group on the polar opposite side that believe so strongly in his cause, they will support him regardless. Then, like most controversial issues, there is the majority in the middle.

If you're like me, you fall into this category. I'm sharing my perspective only because it hopefully adds context. I didn't like when Kaepernick sat. That seemed disrespectful. I was more open when he took a knee. He was still taking his stance, while acknowledging the anthem is a moment deserving of recognition. Not to mention, Kaepernick listened to the outcry and implemented change. He was practicing exactly what he preached.

Here's where I, and probably many others, got lost. To paraphrase his stated goal, it was to raise awareness about police brutality and treatment of minorities in our country. That is a cause a lot of people can get behind. No matter your stance on the anthem, rational minds can agree police brutality is bad. Equal treatment of everyone is good. The shortcoming to me is Kaepernick provided no set of metrics to measure the success or failure of the movement he created. There were no KPIs.

When a pool of Bay Area reporters interviewed Kaepernick shortly after he began kneeling, they asked him what he would like to see changed. He said:

"There's a lot of things that need to change. One specifically is police brutality, there's people being murdered unjustly and not being held accountable. The cops are getting paid leave for killing people. That's not right. That's not right by anyone's standards"

That was one of his more precise answers in the 18 minute Q&A session. Asking people to join that cause is wonderful, but it's also like asking someone to start running a race with no indication how long it would be or where the finish line is.

I don't pretend to know what a realistic goal would have been, but what if Kaepernick said something like this? "I will kneel for the national anthem until we"...

• Reduce the number of police brutality incidents nationally by 25%.
• Raise $50 million towards advanced training of officers in incident prevention.
• Create a bill to end paid leave for officers until the investigation is complete.

Smarter minds than mine would have to figure out what is feasible, but those are examples of KPIs people can process and rally behind.

The bottom line is when you're leading people, whether in business or social causes, you need to know how success will be measured. Working towards a tangible goal motivates people. It gives teams focus. It keeps them going when they're wavering or questioning their progress. It allows you to pivot strategies if you're regressing from the objective. It also makes everyone feel a sense of pride when the goal is achieved.

As far as Mr. Kaepernick's cause, are we closer to his initial goals? There's certainly been awareness, but I'm not sure anyone knows if there's been progress. You need KPIs to figure that out.