Leadership Tip #3: Quantify! Quantify! Quantify!

Quantification is todays Leadership Tips That Work topic. Todays organizations run on the numbers. As the leader, you need to get into the habit of reducing everything into numbers if at all possible.

Which scene below is more likely to succeed?

Jim wants a four person increase in the manpower for an ongoing project. At the weekly staff meeting, he explains the current status of the project.

• 18 percent complete
• 60 percent of available time used.
• 250K of the 700K budget committed.
• 4 people at 40 hours per week = 160 man hours per week added to bring the project in on time with a +/- 5% fudge factor.
• If he doesn't get the additional four people then the existing crew will have to go into paid overtime within six work days to complete the project on time without any fudge factor.
• The additional funds for overtime payroll are 17% higher than the additional four people at normal time.

Elaine is also leading a project team and needs four additional people. When questioned by the senior staff she explains that the project is "somewhere around" twenty percent complete. She "believes" that the four additional people will get the job done just in the nick of time. Currently, her committed budget sits "in the neighborhood" of 250K.

I hope that you can see in this extreme example that Jim went in with guns blazing and a bottom line attitude. Each number tells a portion of the whole story. The senior staff can easily follow the chain of logic and appreciates the methodical approach. Jim gets his people.

Elaine, on the other hand, is quite personable, but her casual approach doesn't convey a sense of being in control of a potentially explosive situation. Instead the staff feels that she is likely better off than she implies and may be padding herself to ensure overkill on resource allocation. She's no dummy and didn't get the job on her personality. However, she is told to carry on and bring back another report at the end of the week.

Numbers are what is left over as you distill everything down. Numbers force the leader to get past personality conflicts. Numbers require discipline. By consistently using a numbers method the following leadership tasks will be simplified and far more credible.

• Evaluations based on quantified data tend to be more fair, firm, and consistent.
• Budgets that are driven by percentages and tied to timelines show how much cost is driving the train.
• Minutes, Hours, Man-Hours, Days, Months, Quarters, etc. all tell a story and allow you to drill down to cause and effect.

Each item in the above list can be managed with a simple spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. In later posts, we will likely cover a specific "how to" approach. In most industries, there are cycles. In each cycle, there are lessons learned. By documenting and quantifying your information you can leverage each cycle and improve the next one. For just one example of how a spreadsheet can help, check this out.

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