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Measuring is a Missional Imperative By Dr. Rob McKenna

The Value of Measuring Trust

I was presenting to a group of CEOs on the importance of building trust in our organizations and measuring the extent to which personal, team, and organizational trust is high.

At the end of the session, I walked out into the parking lot, and one of the CEOs walked up to me and said, “Until today, it has never occurred to me that you could measure something like trust.” While we often think about measuring things like our profit margins, return on investment, funds raised, or bottom line, many leaders don’t consider the possibility that we could also measure the human aspect of our organizations.

A Necessary Reality

We know that measurement of the visible pieces of our business, such as our progress, finances, and performance, is critical. Still, we often fail to effectively measure organizational life’s less obvious and more invisible aspects. As a psychologist, measurement has always played a role in my work. As a businessperson, metrics and measurement are necessary for money and operations, but equally important is the measurement of things related to psychology, motivation, and trust between our employees.

Why Measure?

Measurement of anything in our organizations serves three purposes. First, it tells us where we are. Just like the directory in the mall that says, “You are here,” measurement gives you a sense of where you are starting. While you may know where you want to go, knowing where you are is just as important for mapping the journey ahead.

Second, measurement gives us a way to track our progress. When we begin to see our progress forward or our steps backward, we can more effectively take action to make adjustments that will help us get things moving back in the right direction.

Third, measurement inspires the goal. When we can see small and measurable wins, it inspires us to win more, to move the mission forward, and taps into specific actions we can take to get there.

Behind the Metrics

The only time measurement begins to fail us is when we start defining reality by the outcome and not the story behind the metrics. When we do that, we not only lose sight of what is going on, but we also start defining the forest for the trees or the trees for the forest, and we miss the reality that the outcomes matter, but only in the context of the journey.

Data matters, and in the end, data on trust represents human beings with inherent value, creating the relational fabric of hope, possibility, and personal and team flourishing. Measurement is a missional imperative if we intentionally cultivate and nurture the garden of relationships and healthy interpersonal exchanges that enable us to achieve our deepest desires and missional goals.

A Leader’s Responsibility

As leaders responsible for organizations locally and globally, we know how challenging our jobs can be. While not all understand our burden, we are accountable for the performance, operations, and financial health of our organizations, and also responsible for creating the healthy relational soil within which our people can thrive, respond to the calling on their lives, perform and perform together, and can know others and be known.

Whether you are serving in a local or federal government agency, in the security industry, health care, a not-for-profit, in a trade industry, education, or technology and wherever you lead and serve, you know that you must create places where people can perform at their best, while also increasing their well-being at the same time. Not everyone may understand what you do, but building and maintaining trust between your team members and your entire organization makes it all work.

Whole Trust

Building whole trust doesn’t just happen or emerge out of a gut reaction but out of intentional thinking and doing that connects performance and people in life-changing ways. I hope you will feel inspired to measure and assess while never losing sight of the hearts and minds of your people. Measurement allows us to move trust from an idea to a measurable action you can take to connect your people and move your organizations from struggling to having a profound missional impact.

It is to build places that are strong on the outside or in siloed moments but strong from the outside in and from the inside out. When our people, teams, and organizations are healthy, and trust is the default over distrust, our impact accelerates to miraculous levels. Trust and other key organizational realities can be measured, and that is where the building begins.

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Dr. Rob McKenna is the CEO and Founder of WiLD Leaders, Inc., Named one of the top 30 I-O Psychologists alive today. Dr. McKenna is passionate about developing whole leaders, increasing performance and well-being, and creating whole and sustaining trust.


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