Plus, what you’ll need to nail every single one

Simply put, executives are constantly tasked with solving extremely complex problems within their organizations. The crazy part is that there are really only about 9 operational decisions that leadership can make to solve those problems. Here’s what you need to know in order for you to get those decisions right the first time:

Hiring/Firing

Too often, this decision comes down to who can yell the loudest. In most organizations, every department is clamoring for more headcount. And depending on which way an organization decides to go, growing too fast can overwhelm resources and growing too slowly leads to stagnation. On the other hand, firing employees is a traumatic situation for both parties and needs to be made with care. Managers must make decisions looking at actual performance, not perceived value or intuition.

Metrics needed:

1. Workload
2. Quality of Work
3. Overdue/late work
4. Team Communication

Promoting 

Promotions are exciting, but often, once they’re given, it’s really hard to take them back. So they have to be made wisely. Miss on too many promotions and you’ve got leadership that isn’t pushing your organization further, it’s holding you back.

Metrics needed:

1. Headcount growth
2. Employee performance
3. Communication

Increasing Compensation

Much like promotion, once a raise is given, rarely is it taken away. With every increase in compensation, the business is investing more into their people. When you give that increase to someone who’s good, you’re happy to do it. When you give it to someone who coasts or isn’t competent, you’re essentially setting it on fire. 

Metrics needed:

1. Employee performance/productivity
2. Workload

Limiting/increasing Product Offering

If customers aren’t using it, it’s probably wise to shutter that part of the offering and focus on the stuff that makes you money. When customer requests come in, there has to be some level of flexibility. Either way, you’ve got to have some numbers to back up those kinds of decisions.

Metrics needed:

1. Customer feature usage/requests
2. Sales growth comparison between product lines/offerings

Redistributing Workload

Everyone has been a part of a team where they’ve felt like they either outperformed or have been outperformed by other members of that team. The way to true efficiency and productivity lies beyond some tough decisions that will take some late nights and a little luck. However, if you have the context surrounding what the effect that change induced, you can start to lean less on luck and more on what you’ve learned.

Metrics needed:

1. Workload
2. Employee performance/productivity

Changing Due Dates/Timeline

Setting timelines on services and offerings is somewhat of an art. In order to make it more of a science, these decisions should be based on what’s happening and how things are progressing. But that requires a deeper visibility into the process of the build.

Metrics needed:

1. Process timeline
2. How long has the preparation step taken in comparison to the build step?
3. Workload

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Changing Team Organization

Much like a coach in team sports, managers need to decide who needs to be in the “starting lineup” together. Decisions made can make or break a team’s success. Instead of randomly switching seats to see how that affects productivity, understand who works on which project better and how to leverage those strengths.

Metrics needed:

1. Workload
2. Employee performance/productivity

Changing Tech Stack

Contrary to what every b2b SaaS marketing team tries to tell us, not every tool will make your organization 100% effective. Try to gain an understanding on what’s being used/not used. What uses are employees finding the most value from with these tools? Are there other tools that could solve that problem better?

Metrics needed:

1. Employee adoption
2. Employee performance/productivity

Changing Surroundings (office, culture, environment, etc.)

Changes in headcount, leadership or location can drastically impact an organization. Make sure that these decisions are made with context in mind. Growing too big for an office? Great, let’s find something that will fit our needs better. Having trouble with a “bro-ish” sales force? Ok, let’s determine what can fix that.

Metrics needed:

1. Employee performance/productivity
2. Headcount growth

The Cardagraph Solution

In each of these decisions, background information is pivotal to making the right call. Unfortunately, the context necessary requires more effort than it should. Typically, manual efforts in the form of data exports from software tools plus building relational tables and custom reports for everyone from frontline workers to C-suite executives are required to even make use of what’s there.

At Cardagraph, we make it easy for organizations to improve their operations and processes by automating the process needed to make informed decisions. Once we’ve gathered, organized, secured, and cleaned the information that employees are creating every day just by doing their job, Cardagraph helps managers get an understanding of the things that lead to success, then empower them to go multiply those successes. 

Whatever industry you’re in, Cardagraph will allow for continuous improvement of your organization. Allow us to give you the necessary context, so you can focus on making decisions. 

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Jordan Hale

Director of Sales