How to Stop Measuring and Start Mattering

April 15, 2011 2:32 PM

Not everything can be comfortably quantified.

Yes, humans operate out of the need to control of their environment and actions. And they have a native desire to label, organize and make sense of their world.

But some things can’t be proved by objective standards.

Like the commonly used business phrase, “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t matter.”

How silly. How corporate. How left-brain.

MY THEORY: What can’t be measured, matters.For example:

1. Leadership is not a label. It doesn’t matter if you’re a leader. It doesn’t matter if you have a title. What matters is passion. What matters is expressing yourself freely, fully and relentlessly. What matters is how people experience you, and how they experience themselves in relation to you. Master that, and people will follow you. Where does your leadership come from?

2. Humor is not a condiment.. Humor is the only universal language. But it’s not something you just decide to use. Humor isn’t something you add – it’s something you embody. Instead of artificially injecting humor, just be funny. Discover your innate inevitable funniness as a human being, and people will laugh. Can you report accurately and clearly on funny situations?

3. Recognition is not an initiative. The universal motivation of human engagement is the desire to have one’s voice heard. As such, recognition is more than just praising people publicly – it’s being a stand for people’s greatness. It’s about giving them a front row seat to their own brilliance and while inviting the rest of the world to sit in the audience with them. How are you making gratitude palpable and recurrent?

4. Soul is not an organ. It’s the art of owning your gift, deploying intense humanity and exhibiting naked personhood. It’s about staying in touch with your own story, proudly showing people what’s under your fingernails and delivering something nobody can touch. And it’s about exposing the place where you really live, fearlessly opening the closed room and bring all of yourself to everything you do. Sound like you?

5. Caring is not an algorithm. You can’t bastardize caring into a technique. There’s no formula. There’s no handbook. There’s no seven-step system. What matters is your willingness to care, your awareness of caring, and consistency with which you do care. And, that you care for the right reasons. Do you really care, or just care about looking like you care so you can meet your sales quota?

6. Authenticity is not a strategy. First of all, if you have to tell someone you’re authentic, you’re probably full of shit. Secondly, authentic isn’t something you try to be – it’s something you allow yourself to share. Third, authenticity comes from the Greek authentikos, which means “original.” Which means being authentic is about standing on the foundation of your rarity. How’s your balance?

7. Happiness is not a goal. It’s a dividend. It’s the incidental consequence of the intentional commitment to fulfill your whole capacity for living. And when you focus your energy on that first, it just shows up. Because happiness isn’t the target – happiness is what you get for hitting the target. What will make you happy that has nothing to do with ego or image or status?

8. Creativity is not a department. Everyone is creative. The difference is, not everyone knows how to explode the barriers set in place by a lifetime of conditioning to express that creativity. If you’re one of those people, take Hugh Macleod’s advice: Bring new light to what life might be. That’s creativity. What parts of your life are you not giving yourself permission to live creatively?

9. Honesty is not a policy. If you have to tell your people to tell the truth, you need new people. Here’s the reality: If someone plans to live a dishonest life offline, there’s going to be a huge echo online. And their digital footprint will slip on the technological banana peel to destroy their reputation forever. Are you willing to live with the consequences of being honest?

10. Purpose is not a task. It’s the way you choose to live your life. It’s the amalgamation of everything you do and say, each day, which validates your existence as a human being. And if you’re not sure what your purpose is, no problem: Finding your purpose can become your purpose until you find your purpose. Get to work. What three things are you doing regularly that don’t serve or support your vision, calling or purpose?

11. Love is not a combination lock. There’s no how-to book. There’s no formula. If you want to make love stay, it’s simple but not easy: Never get lazy with people. Make love the question you answer with your life, every day, until it’s over. Because in the end, your life is measured by how well you love, not how far you get. What are you trying to figure out that can’t be figured out?

12. Humanity is not a crime. Being a real person is good for business. And companies that lack humanity leak profit. Naturally, I have no data to measure this. I have no research to prove this. I have no statistics to support this. Nobody does. But you don’t need to look very far to find evidence of the profitability of approachability. Is there enough evidence to convict your organization?

13. Integrity is not a buzzword. It’s a way of life, a way of being and a way of treating people. It’s what happens when your onstage performance mirrors your backstage reality. It’s what happens when the message you preach is the dominant reality of your life. And it’s what happens when your life enshrines what your lips proclaim. Are you smoking what you’re selling?

I’LL SAY IT AGAIN: What can’t be measured, matters.

After all, when it’s your heart, you don’t have to convince people that you can’t live without it.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Are you spending your time measuring or mattering?

LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For a list called, “153 Quotations to Inspire Your Success,” send an email to me, and you win the list for free!

* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
Author, Speaker, Publisher, Artist, Mentor
[email protected]

“I usually refuse to pay for mentoring. But after Scott’s first brain rental session, the fact that I had paid something to be working with him left my mind – as far as I was concerned, the value of that (and subsequent) exchange of wisdom and knowledge, far outweighed any payment.”