In last week’s column, I wrote about the three characteristics of a great leader. One was self-awareness, which is the ability to see oneself objectively, both the positives and the not-so-positives. I believe self-awareness is linked to humility. You have likely heard comments about people such as, “He is so full of himself.” And you may remember the old Mac Davis song with the lyrics “Oh, Lord, it’s hard to be humble when you’re perfect in every way.”

While statements about humility can be made (or sung) in jest, a lack of it can keep an individual, a company, or a community from being the best they can be. When we can’t see ourselves objectively (with humility), we don’t realize what needs to change. And we can all get better in some area. This almost always requires measurement.

In my first book, Hardwiring Excellence, I shared nine principles that when followed produce great results. The first is a commitment to excellence. The second is “measure the important things.” Don’t measure just to measure, but measure what is most important to help you, the team you lead, or your company or community to be the best it can be.

Years ago, when I worked for an organization, a man named Clay Sherman taught our leadership team to measure. We did a great job of measuring finance items. However, we were lacking in measuring customer service and quality as well as the most important capital we had: human capital. I learned from Clay that we can tell a company’s values by what they measure.

Measurement is vital, for it makes us aware of what does and does not need attention, where we are getting better or worse, or where there are some real red flags. Doctors measure to check our health. When we board a plane, they measure weight and its distribution. A few weeks back when I was in Wisconsin, the warning light on the car I was driving came on and showed that the tires needed air. In this case, measurement allowed me to act before I had an accident or had to deal with a flat tire in -21° temperatures. This last example shows the value of a dashboard.

Some years back, Studer Community Institute created dashboards for Escambia and Santa Rosa counties and the city of Pensacola. Dashboards help a community track where they are, identify where to focus, and measure progress. Escambia County’s dashboard led to a focus on early brain development. (This matters because 85 percent of a child’s brain is developed by age three.) As a result, in the past few years, over 9,000 mothers who have had a baby in this county received materials and education on how to develop their child’s brain. A big thank-you goes to the hospitals and especially the nurses who are making a positive difference. (Also, just recently, Milton, Florida, saw the value of dashboards and asked us to help them create one as well. Hats off to them!)

In working with businesses, I have seen that once objective goals are set, it uncovers a need for better measurement. For example, when companies face the issue of attracting talent, they discover they have barriers in the recruitment process they were not aware of. How quickly are candidates responded to, reference checks done, interviews completed, and an offer made?  We are in stiff competition for people, so it’s urgent to communicate quickly to a candidate. The same is true of customer service. What are the standards for responding to a request or complaint? Each delay is costly to a company. In both cases, leaders need to be willing to measure. So why isn’t measurement done nearly as well as it could be?

Since my latest book, Building a Vibrant Community, came out, I have been fortunate to visit communities and speak with many community leaders, as well as be a guest on many radio shows and podcasts. And what I consistently find is that self-assessment is not easy. In a 12-step recovery program, Step 4 is “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” And it does not stop there. Step 5 asks us to share the inventory with another human being. There is a reason for this. Self-inventories, and authenticity in admitting what we need to do better, are crucial.

This requires the deflating of the ego. I feel if one does not deflate their own ego, it will be deflated for them. The former is much less painful than the latter.

The challenge I see in my work with companies is that ego keeps us from holding up the mirror. A desire to say, “We are the best,” might prevent a company from measuring. They are concerned others may find out that it’s not true. Recently a large company met with me to pitch their services. In the presentation they said, “We have the best service in the industry.” When they were done, I asked how they knew they had the best service. They could not answer. Like a company telling an applicant, “We are a great place to work,” if there has been no measurement around engagement, how can they back up their statement? 

Now, in getting to know communities, I find that some can be even less comfortable with measurement. Every city says, “We have a great quality of life.” But do they? One of the first items we recommend a city do is create a dashboard of key metrics and conduct a quality of life survey. The good news is that healthy communities quickly see the value of this.

Without good measurement, a person, a company, or a community can con themselves—what’s often called “reading one’s own press clippings.” The key measurement we look at is population growth. Communities that are going in the right direction will have more people staying and more people moving in. It is not unusual to hear those in economic development tout the thousands of jobs and dollars they have brought into the county. Yet, they often have not had much positive population growth. To attract and retain jobs is good; however, if you don’t gain more people living in the area, it does not have the impact it should have.

Individuals, companies, and communities that have the willingness and ability to do a searching and fearless moral inventory of themselves are those that will thrive.

A few tips:

• Take time to decide what is most important to you as a person, to your company, and to your community.

• If an accepted measurement tool exists, and many do, use it. Be careful not to rationalize how you, your company, or your community are different and thus the measurements don’t apply. This is called “terminal uniqueness,” and it will prevent you from improving and growing.

• If a tool is not easy to get ahold of, do your own survey. Years ago, a local high school had some very vocal parents who were not happy with the coach of a team. They were making a lot of noise. The coach came to see me. I offered to do a survey of the parents. The results showed that overall the parents were satisfied and that there also were some opportunities to improve. I rolled out the survey to the parents. The loud ones realized that many other parents felt better about the coach than they had thought. The results also identified a road map for improvement for the coach.

• Don’t fight the data. Spend your time acting to improve the results.

• Measure often enough to see if progress is being made.

• Don’t use the excuse that there is no comparison data. Even comparing your progress against yourself is worthwhile.

Yes, it is hard for a person, company, or community to hold up the mirror. Ego can get in the way. However, getting better and better starts with a commitment to excellence and continues with the measurement of the most important things. We all need to practice humility if we are to become the best we can be.