"The second discipline is to apply disproportionate energy to the activities that drive your lead measures. This provides the leverage for achieving the lag measures.
... Lead measures are the “measures” of the activities most connected to achieving the goal.
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While a lag measure tells you if you’ve achieved the goal, a lead measure tells you if you are likely to achieve the goal. While a lag measure is hard to do anything about, a lead measure is virtually within your control. [Moi ici: Os autores queixam-se que os empresários com quem trabalham concentram-se demasiado nos indicadores de resultados. Interessante, a minha experiência é diferente, o que encontro muitas vezes são indicadores de actividades, indicadores de quantidade de trabalho e, poucos ou nenhuns de resultados]
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Once you have defined your wildly important goal it would seem natural, even intuitive, to then create a detailed plan listing all of the specific tasks and sub tasks required for achieving the goal in the coming months. But with Discipline 2, that’s not what you are going to do.
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Discipline 2 requires you to define the daily or weekly measures, the achievement of which will lead to the goal.
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A lag measure is the measurement of a result you are trying to achieve.
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Lead measures are different; they foretell the result. They have two primary characteristics. First, a lead measure is predictive, meaning that if the lead measure changes, you can predict that the lag measure also will change. Second, a lead measure is influenceable; it can be directly influenced by the team. That is, the team can make a lead measure happen without a significant dependence on another team.
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In Discipline 2, you create lead measures, the movement of which will become the driving force for achieving the WIG.
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There’s a problem with lead measures. Where do leaders normally fixate, on lead measures or on lag measures? That’s right. As a leader, you’ve likely spent your entire career focusing on lag measures even though you can’t directly affect them.
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The key principle behind lead measures is simply this: leverage. Think of it this way: achieving your wildly important goal is like trying to move a giant rock; but despite all the energy your team exerts, it doesn’t move. It’s not a question of effort; if it were, you and your team would already have moved it. The problem is that effort alone isn’t enough. Lead measures act like a lever, making it possible to move that rock. Now consider the two primary characteristics of a lever. First, unlike the rock, the lever is something we can move: It’s influenceable. Second, when the lever moves, the rock moves: It’s predictive.
Trechos retirados de "The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals" de Chris McChesney, Sean Covey e Jim Huling.