Just how important are success measures for our teams?

Recently, I read this article, a discussion with Adam Nash, C.E.O. of Wealthfront, and found his statements powerful.

Nash explains that one of the most important things that a leader can do is to set and communicate clear goals and metrics, so that the members of our organizations know how to keep score. Because many of us have several smart people working with us, we should be aware of how clearly we are communicating: "Because if you don’t give people metrics, smart people will make up their own. In fact, there’s a lot of behavioral psychology around the fact that the smarter you are, the easier it is for you to make up metrics that make you think you’re doing the right thing."

At Cornell University, I work with several groups all across the Ithaca Campus to help them improve their business processes. And in that work, I often notice just how challenging it is for leaders (and for the teams) to verbalize a clear goal for improvement and clear measures of success. It would seem that many other firms also have that same challenge: measuring success.

What about your firm? What is a goal for your team and how do you measure whether the team is meeting, surpassing, or missing the goal? Please feel free to share your thoughts.