Leverage your education - #4

To get the most of your educational investments I am making a few suggestions. This is suggestion number 4 of 5 in this weeks series.
Suggestion #4 - Assessment.
O.K. so you tried it. How did it work? Were the results what you expected? How do you measure success?

If it is a technical skill... you will know right away. Step back. Take a look. Are you happy with the result? Is the client? This is easy to measure.

other ideas will be assessed differently. A marketing tactic? Did it bring in new clients? How many? At what cost? was it worth the time, effort and expense? How is your ROI? A retention tactic... It may be too soon to tell. Have a way to measure and a time frame in which you expect to see results. Hold yourself and your team accountable for the results of your efforts.

Discuss assessment ahead of time as a part of execution. What are we going to do? How will we do it? and how do we know we did it and got the results we were seeking.

You might even want to seek the assistance and input of a trusted outside advisor, someone who can be entirely objective. Everyone needs a coach and a mentor. This is a great role for that person... assist with assessment. How are we doing? A very important question when we seek to grow and move ahead.

The saying is... If you do not know where you are going how will you know when you get there? Have goals in mind from the start... Stephen Covey - "Begin with the end in mind".