If you can not track it, then do not do it.
Every high performance company needs a tracking system. A tracking system with well-designed metrics lets everyone know how well they do in relation to their obligations. This is a guide to whether additional or extraordinary measures must be taken.
This is one of the first things I set up with my business coaching clients because without a clear set of objective metrics it is difficult for people to be clear about the outcome.
Set goals for your project, understand the critical success factors, determine an appropriate measurement for each, and set performance targets for those actions.
For example, say your goal is to increase market penetration. The measure is your venture’s sales divided by total sales in your market. Maybe you current market share is 10% – good, you have a benchmark, and the new target is 25% at the end of the year.
This is objective, measurable, and so achievable.
Make someone accountable for your project performance against the targets.
Establish a timely tracking system for each metric that easily collect the necessary data.
Develop periodic interim performance target and a reporting structure to let everyone involved know how they are doing.
Your performance tracking system can be kept with pen and paper, or they can automatically on your computer system. As you put them, keep it simple and do not let the overhead of your tracking system become a burden of any kind.