Many of you probably don’t know this but I am an author. I wrote my first book in 2013. I’m sure you’re probably wondering what business topic I discussed in my first book. Well, that topic was dry eye. Yep you heard me correctly, I wrote a book called -- Dry Eye No More - How to solve your dry eye naturally.
Back in August of 2010, I had lasik surgery; by January of 2011, I was suffering from the most severe dry eye I could have ever imagined. My eyes were always dry and red, and I was living in constant pain. My eyes would feel extremely “heavy” and every time I blinked, it felt like I was rubbing sandpaper over my eyeballs. I was in so much pain, I began going to the eye doctors for pain relief treatment once or twice a month to the point that I became a regular at the office. I became reclusive because I didn’t want people to see how bad my eyes looked, and I didn’t want to talk about it. I was also having problems with the brightness of office and store lights. It got so bad, I began wearing sunglasses at night while driving to block out the headlights of the oncoming cars and the ones that were flashing in my rearview and side mirrors. I tried many prescription and nonprescription drops and ointments, but nothing seemed to help. If anything, it seemed like my eyes were getting worse. I was having extreme difficulty with performing my job and just living my normal life. My eyes were on fire! As bad as I was feeling then, I began to worry about how much worse it was going to be in a year or five years or twenty years. I was very concerned that I was losing my eyesight.
During this process, I also learned a very important reality that no eye expert was going to tell me -- there is no cure for dry eye. I finally decided I needed to take matters into my own hands to figure this out because no one else was going to. So my first thought was, “How do I do this?” As I thought about it, I naturally began to follow my “what gets measured, gets managed” instincts and created a spreadsheet to track my dry eye.
I purchased hygrometers (instruments that measure the humidity in the air) and placed them everywhere --in my office at work, my car, my home, my bedroom. Everywhere I went, I had one of them with me. For the first three days, every 20 minutes, I recorded the humidity in the air along with where I was, what I was doing and the level of pain I felt using a 1 to 10 scale (10 being the most painful).
I thought I was at or near a “10” pain all the time but once I began collecting the data, I discovered that the level of pain fluctuated. After two weeks of tracking this information, I discovered there were activities I was performing that would relieve some of the pain and then others that would make the pain worse. I began to experiment and discovered how to combine the activities that made my eyes feel better until I put the right formula together to become pain-free; free from dry eye, every day.
There is no cure for dry eye, but I solved my dry eye problem and continue to live pain-free. I was so excited with what I accomplished and wanted to share my findings with all dry eye sufferers, so I wrote my book.
I solved my dry eye problem because of my belief that anything can be solved if you follow the “What gets measured gets managed” ideology. Think about it --if you want to manage something, if you want to fix something, you have to find data to measure because once you begin collecting data, you now have information. Information allows you to track the past, make comparisons, create benchmarks, see trends. Having this information allows you to make informed decisions giving you the confidence to take action. Once you begin taking action, you create powerful new habits which change your behaviors, resulting in positive outcomes!
Think about it, I found and collected data that solved my dry eye. Who would have thought you can find data in dry eye? It’s just one example of how data exists in everything, you just need to know where to look.
Now just imagine what you can do with that data making machine called your company. The opportunities that you’re missing out on because you’re failing to collect that data. Let’s change that right now!
When I realized there was no cure for dry eye and decided to take matters into my own hands, I immediately began to think about the different variables that I can control and measure that might be causing the dryness in my eyes. One of the first variables that came to mind was humidity. I figured there had to be some connection between the level of humidity in the air of the environment I spent most of my time and the dryness of my eyes.
So how does this help you become a better boss? Think about how you encourage your team to be successful. What data points are you using. Are the data points something that your employees can control and measure or are they being judged based upon company objectives they have little or no control over? Remember -- what gets measured, gets managed -- so it’s important to create measurements that your employees can control. This will ultimate`ly lead to accomplishing your company objectives.
Many businesses will go out of their way to get the whole company together to share objectives such as to increase revenue by $50,000 or to increase profit by 5%. The problem is that there’s a very good chance that the lower level employees in that meeting will not see the connection between those high level company objectives and what they do.
For instance, the employee at the deli, slicing the cheese or the secretary that answers the phone or the accounts receivables clerk that collects money from the customers or the driver that delivers the product to the customer won’t see any direct connection between those company objectives and what they do on a daily basis so they won’t change anything.
As their supervisor...as their coach...as their leader, it’s your responsibility to create the connection between what your employees do on a daily basis and the company objectives. You need to find the data points that are controllable and measurable.
For example, if you worked at the deli, it’s up to you to create a measurement like “number of customers served per hour” for the cheese slicer. Having the cheese slicer focus on increasing the number of customers served will improve customer wait time, which shortens the line, which creates a greater chance customers don’t walk away, creating increased revenue.
It’s up to you as supervisor to create a program where you survey customers on how well they were treated by the secretary when they called or stopped in. Measuring customer satisfaction encourages better service from the secretary, creating a happier customer experience, creating repeat customers and referrals, giving the potential for increased revenue.
It’s up to you as supervisor to create an accounts receivable aging report to ensure timely payments. Getting paid on time means there’s a greater chance receivables don’t become uncollectible which ultimately will increase cash flow and profits.
It’s up to you as supervisor to make your drivers aware of the importance of checking to make sure you have all the packages you’re supposed to deliver to the customers before you leave the plant. Having one hundred percent accuracy means less trips back and forth to the customer, which creates less cost in fuel and labor time and a happier customer, which saves money, increasing profits.
There’s data in everything. It’s up to you to find the data points that align every employee you supervise with the company objectives. It’s your fault if it’s not happening -- not theirs.
So first of all, ask yourself if your employees are being measured on objectives that are in their control and if the answer is “no” then begin the process of creating those data points. The more measurements you create that are controllable by your employees, the greater the probability your employees will have clarity with what they and the team are trying to accomplish, the greater the probability the team will communicate and work better together, the greater the chance they will have higher job satisfaction because they have more control over their own destiny, the greater the chance there will be congruence with company goals and objectives. The greater the probability that you will receive the respect and trust from your team that only the most effective leaders and bosses and mentors earn.
I hope you have a great day!