Your Key Performance Indicators

What are your key performance indicators (KPIs)?

These are the few things you must do well to succeed, not the 50 things you could do. The few that truly move the needle.

You’ll always have more on your plate than time to get it all done. That’s not a bug; it’s a feature. If that’s not your case, you might have bigger problems.

Your house doesn’t need to be spotless 24/7. Every book doesn’t need to be perfectly shelved, and every sock doesn’t need to find its pair. What matters is that the refrigerator stays in the kitchen, the bed belongs in the bedroom, and the toilet remains in the bathroom.

It’s the same with your work. Some things just have to be done—and done right—by you.

I’ve spent far too much time on tasks that seemed productive in the moment but didn’t contribute to meaningful outcomes. Things like getting to inbox zero, making team wikis look fancy, polishing non-critical projects, or tweaking operations that didn’t make a real difference. Just nice-to-haves.

That’s why identifying your KPIs is so important. They’re your compass in the chaos, helping you decide what matters and what doesn’t.

For example, if you’re a manager, your KPIs might look like this:

1. Hiring and promoting top performers, while addressing low performers.
2. Ensuring Project X is delivered on time.
3. Writing and presenting the vision of your organization to senior leaders.
4. Leading that cross-org initiative your leadership deeply cares about.

Delegate the rest. It clears your plate for the priorities and gives others room to step up. But keep in mind that delegation transfers ownership, not responsibility. Delegating well is an art, but let’s save that for another post.

I still occasionally take on those non-critical tasks. Sometimes because I enjoy them, sometimes to help a colleague or my team, or simply because keeping my inbox clean reduces my anxiety. The key is ensuring they don’t take up more than 5%, maybe 10%, of my time.

So don’t worry about a book on the kitchen counter. But don’t let the toilet end up in the living room, either.

Identify your KPIs. Track them. Adjust as needed. And focus on what really matters.