Your business has metrics that you invest in recording and considering. In normal times you know generally how to interpret them. You can quickly perceive how involved you need to get in addressing a potential problem or verifying what appears to be amazing success.

These continue to be abnormal times worldwide. While we’ve gotten used to wearing masks, regular sanitizing, and maintaining distance, we are not yet as comfortable deciphering the uncertainties of how employees, suppliers and customers are dealing with today’s pandemic. Variations in order quantities previously may well have been normal; now you wonder if they indicate something much more specific.

Looking not at trailing indicators like the financials in most KPIs, but at your leading indicator KPIs, it is worth examining the calculations, the timing, and the interpretations.

Few things last forever, and that includes effective leading indicators to help you drive your business toward to the future. We’d rather identify needed changes in advance, which takes prioritization and intention. As Joe Lewis said, “everyone has a plan until they get hit.” The more you can foresee the jabs and uppercuts, the better you can dodge them. While lying on the mat is a bad time to find out this fighter is very different from the last one you faced.

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