Much has been discussed in articles over the last few months about the critical need for a manager to establish a clear set of goals and objectives. However, we all also need to be reminded about the importance of measurement to ascertain your progress toward reaching that goal or objective.

Measurement means having a clear idea of your return on investment, and this doesn’t just involved financial data. This can also be related to the personal development of staff. You can measure all kinds of things, for example, after sending your key personnel on customer service or management training you should be able to measure it’s effectiveness with a good customer survey project or an ability to demonstrate manage skills.

So although measurement is a little stronger and easier to analyse when it’s quantitative results you’re after, measuring your success in terms of goals and targets can also be qualitative.

For a manager, once you get into the habit of measuring results, it enables you to experiment with tweaks or even step changes in your product/service mix. This means you have an objective method for making decisions, without having to rely on huge personal involvement to be able to make decisions - purely based on instinct rather than fact.

Good management means good measurement.