Life KPIs

Every week I update and review a dashboard for my market research business with our leadership team. We share metrics around our sales and marketing activity, operations, finance; the overall health of our company. We review a few numbers each week as a group, I review some on my own, all with the purpose of quickly highlighting if things are moving forward as they need to be moving, or not. For example, we track (among others):

• YTD revenue - accrual and cash
• YTD revenue vs previous year 
• COGs
• Gross margin
• Net operating income
• Percent billable hours as a company
• Percent billable hours by employee
• # of sales calls
• # of proposals sent
• # of proposals won
• Average amount of proposals
• AR aging
• Cash

You get the point. Every week there are certain metrics we review to make sure TBG is on track.

It's common in business. EOS teaches about the dashboard, the critical number. Scaling Up ensures you have a weekly review with your team about key performance metrics.

But how do we hold ourselves accountable to ask these same questions of ourselves outside of work?  How do we check in on *life* metrics to make sure we're leading in a positive direction (of a happy, or purpose-filled/well-lived life?)

Have you ever even thought about what those KPIs might be?

Sharing this while it's still in early draft form, but I've started incorporating a weekly dashboard for my life as well. It's always been a part of my practice to do a weekly review, and to track personal goals (using a 90 day system). But, this isn't about goals, per se. And it's not a habit tracker.

This captures the overall feeling I have at the end of each week about areas in my life that are important to me and that together - I think are strong indicators of confirming or highlighting if I'm not on track for the life I want to be living. 

I'm still tweaking this. I've tried two different approaches for rating and list both below; use the one that works best for you or share in the comments how else you may keep track/what else you may add. As I said, it's still a work in progress.

1.  Plus and Minuses: The system EOS recommends when rating around core values is +, +/-, -.  Simple way to see if in the leading indicators of life you have more +s than -s.  

2. Rating Scale: A simple 1-10 or 1-5 rating system with 1 on the low end. You get a snapshot each week about how you're rating your level of satisfaction in the areas that matter most to you.

Here are some KPIs I have on my list to consider when building yours.

✅ Overall life satisfaction:  Take it all into account. Relationships, physical health, mental health, finances, business, personal growth.  

✅ Relationship with husband

✅ Daughter

✅ Son

✅ Family

✅ Friendships

✅ Community

✅ Professional contentment (with TBG)

✅ Personal development

✅ Professional development

✅ Physical health

✅ Mental health

✅ Time for hobbies

✅ Volunteering/giving back

✅ Balance

This list is in no means exhaustive. Add to it. If it looks like too much, remove what doesn't fit. To start, I'd recommend simply adding the first KPI - Overall life satisfaction. Use it as a catch-all. Add it to your journal, your weekly review, or if you are already in the habit of creating a work dashboard each week, create one extra Google Sheet or Excel file with a personal KPI list as well.

It's simple and only takes a couple of minutes max per week.

You start seeing trends in where you are rating high and low. If you see a lot of -'s in an area, you may need to start thinking about changes you need to make to move your rating up. Same with lower numbers if that's the system you choose.

There's a lot I've learned in running a business in the last seven years that has made me more aware of the importance of tracking - each week - the health of my organization.

What's more important than also tracking my personal health/contentment/happiness -- and putting KPIs in place for what matters most?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments on if this resonates, if this sounds like too much... what do you think? How do you best regularly check in to make sure you're moving in the right direction?