Make Your Business More Valuable by Keeping Score

How exciting would it have been to watch the NFL playoffs this past weekend if the teams just played until they got tired? No time limit, no stats, no final score, no winners and no losers. Would there even be playoffs? How motivating do you think it would be for the NFL players themselves? Do you think they could play their best and how would they even know?

How tough would it be for the coaches to motivate their players to perform as individuals and teams to obtain peak performance? I speculate the pre-game and half-time speeches would take on much less significance as would the July training camps.

Unfortunately, most small businesses do not keep score except maybe at a very high level like sales for the month, and even then it is most likely just the end result. How do you know your service is improving, how do you know that you will make your sales numbers three months from now, and how do you know that your new employee is performing better than the one you just replaced. The answer is keep score.

To increase the value of your business, you must keep score on what matters most and celebrate victories – at the company level, at the department level, and at the individual level. So figure out what matters for each position, for each department and for your company as a whole and start keeping score. Not only is it more fun for the staff, at least those interested in improving their performance, it will make your company more valuable.

And for those of you already keeping score, congratulations….now what’s your Super Bowl?