It can be a great open question to ask of people, as it challenges them to stop and think. (In an increasingly fast paced and action orientated world, no bad thing at all!) It can also be applied to any situation and works regardless of scale. Why not ask a few people this question yourself to see what happens?

Often, my observation is that people wrestle with what, on the surface of it, feels like it should be an easy enough question to answer. However, because it is so fundamental, people often feel it should be obvious. And that is key. Unfortunately, it rarely is obvious and even if obvious to one person, to the next person the ‘obvious’ answer is completely different! You would have thought that answering a question so fundamental would be given the highest level of attention, otherwise what is all that stuff that you are running around doing all about?

So how do people often answer this question? Well, as mentioned, why not conduct your own mini survey, and see what happens. For example, ask a colleague, or if you lead a team, ask them, and see what happens. In my experience, people often struggle to answer with clarity, as either, they have never really thought about it or they answer by referring to a metric, target, or goal of some description. If you then ask, and what are you looking to achieve by setting that target? You often get a very blank look, the kind that suggests you may well have just arrived from Mars! This is because people have accepted an answer without asking themselves (or others) this most fundamental of questions. It’s just the way it is, isn’t it? The third common response is to tell you what they do or are currently working on. Again, this indicates a lack of clarity regarding what this effort is being targeted towards.

Are goals and targets the answer?

This is one of the key areas of confusion I often experience. The goal or target becomes the thing people look to achieve. One consequence of this is it can create a very transactional style of leadership, where the discussion between a manager and subordinate is either, “well done you have hit your target” or “what are you doing wrong, you’ve missed your target” There is no investigation into the reasons either for exceeding or missing the target, therefore zero chance for any learning and hence meaningful change to take place.

However, the fundamental confusion is that metric or targets, if used at all, need to be a guide to help you answer the question of what you are looking to achieve, not the answer itself. They only let you know your impact, not whether you are achieving your intent.

A short note on metrics

Targets, goals and key performance indicators (KPI’s) can help. The key is to understand what you are using them for. Often KPI’s get confused with goals and targets yet have a very different use. KPI’s are designed to ‘indicate’ how you are going to perform in the future by measuring key drivers of performance. Targets and goals set an achievement level for a set point in time and a hence can only tell you whether you achieved this or not. Herein lies one of the challenges with goals and targets. They can only tell you whether you achieved that goal or target and nothing else. They don’t help you understand the wider consequences of your actions or help you understand what contributed to the performance and whether this was controllable or due to factors beyond your control. In other words, they provide little insight, yet still sadly, seem to be the yardstick by which many people are managed.

A common example of this is when an organisation, team or individual misses a target, let’s say by 5%. The immediate response is to put up next months or next quarters target by 5%, with little or no investigation into what caused the 5% deficit in the first place! Remember, it may have nothing to do with anyone’s performance at all!

Are you saying we shouldn’t measure performance then?

No, what I am saying is you have to investigate performance and make decisions on a wider body of evidence than just whether a number, that often, is arrived at by fairly arbitrary means, is met. It is people’s behaviour that drives performance, and this can be driven by factors both external to the individual, team or organisation or those which are internal. Measures or indicators are merely part of that investigation.

It is worth remembering that managing performance should always be about helping people to achieve (whatever we decide that should be) not simply pointing out whether they have hit a target or not. This takes time and dedication.

So, how do we decide what it is we need to achieve?

Whether for yourself, a team or an organisation, the principle is the same. A great place to start is to understand your reason for being, your purpose or raison d’etre*. You have to ask, why do I do what I do? Or why do we do what we do? This is the most fundamental question you can ask – everything else derives from the answer – this purpose.

It is worth noting this isn’t about strategy. Strategy is how you go about achieving, purpose is about why. A healthy strategy should always serve your purpose and one of the biggest dangers comes when strategy is misaligned with purpose. A misaligned strategy will drive behaviour that doesn’t match your ultimate aim.

As Peter Drucker famously quoted, “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The cornerstone of healthy culture is one where beliefs and values are aligned with and derived from purpose.

The point is purpose is the starting place, the ultimate expression of what are we looking to achieve.

The other powerful thing about purpose is that you are always looking to move towards and embody it, even though it may always be just over the horizon. Remember it is not a goal, it isn’t a moment in time, and therefore provides a constant sense of direction, you may never get there but you are always striving to do so. This provides a constant desire to move forward.

How does this impact me day to day?

What a great question to ask! Again, it challenges you to stop, have a think and seek clarity.

A good way of thinking about this is by looking at any job role within an organisation. Every function of that role should in some way be aligned with the purpose, no matter what the role is.

Interestingly, the Cambridge English Dictionary definition of an organisation is “a group of people united in common purpose”. Therefore, it makes sense that every role, no matter what, is focused and aligned with that purpose.

So, when you ask yourself, whatever the scale or timescale, what am I looking to achieve? Ask yourself how does this help fulfil purpose?

*Rasion d’etre – French, meaning the most important reason or purpose for someone or something’s existence