BENCHMARKING YOUR BUSINESS Follow Your Gut

Benchmarks are normally calculated in objective, quantifiable terms and reduced to numbers. But I’d argue that the most important “benchmarks” are not quantifiable. These “benchmarks” are intuitive. They actually guide and drive the objective, analytical ones. Unfortunately, most contractors pay no attention to them and it is to their detriment.

INTUITIVE BENCHMARKS. You go into a doctor’s office and what’s the first thing that he asks? “How are you feeling today?” That’s intuitive. Then what does he do? He starts to measure things: temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol levels, etc. But doctors usually start with intuitive things. Good doctors don’t just look at the facts – they are interested in the whole person. They understand the progression of going from the intuitive to the analytical back to the intuitive.  

Here are a few of the many intuitive benchmarks that green industry professionals should pay attention to.
 
Individual benchmarks:
1. Do you enjoy your work?
2. Are you thriving or are you flat, bored and unchallenged?
3. How is your stress level?
4. Do you feel overwhelmed?
5. Do you feel in or out of control?
6. Does your team require minimal supervision?
7. Do you have an optimistic outlook?

Team/Company benchmarks:
1. Is your company an “exciting” place to work?
2. Do your staff members, clients and jobs “fit” the company’s culture?
3. Does professionalism permeate your business?
4. Are your team members thriving or are they bored and being stifled?
5. Do your staff members like their jobs, their boss, you?
6. Is there an exciting “chemistry” in the company between staff and clients?
7. What is the job satisfaction rating?
8. Do staff members feel “empowered?”

BUILDING GREAT TEAMS. Great entrepreneurs create great corporate culture and great companies emanate from great corporate culture. This culture combined with objective, quantifiable benchmarks provides the “railroad tracks” for your business to run on. Then you add the right team members who fit your organization. An entrepreneur cannot merely be a “technician” and create a great company. They also have to pay attention to the intangibles in the business. Facts, data and products do not create great companies – people do.
 
It’s the “soft” intuitive benchmarks that determine the “hard” analytical ones. But you have to have both or you lose balance, perspective and, ultimately, competitiveness. If your business is out of balance, you should sense it in your gut. It’s at this point that you really need to start measuring things and comparing your company’s performance to acceptable, objective industry benchmarks.

Once you get things back on track, you then need to consistently monitor your “gut” feel for what’s going on with the hard cold measurable facts. Often, it requires getting an outside perspective from a qualified “corporate doctor” in order to diagnose the problems correctly. Unfortunately, I’ve seen lots of entrepreneurs who were too proud to ask for an outside perspective. They insisted on self-diagnosing.

People who want to be their own doctor often have a fool for a patient. Be smart – get an outside perspective if you need it.

John Huston is president of J.R. Huston Enterprises, a Denver-based green industry consulting firm. Reach him at  800/451-5588, benchmarking@gie.net or via www.jrhuston.biz.