Scoreboard FB

Scoreboard FB (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you have a ScoreBoard for your Startup? Well, if you don’t you need to get one. Once you have a scoreboard you need to determine what you are going to measure and there are some time tested definitions for establishing goals for your team, your startup or how you are executing. Remember Vision without Execution is Hallucination. So what do you need to define your team’s Goals? Goals or Metrics need to be S.M.A.R.T

1. Specific

2. Measurable

3. Achievable

4. Realistic

5. Timeframe bound

I have written about Metrics that matter before, but I don’t believe I have written about how to define goals. The above acronym has always helped me when working on defining a goal. Every startup is different but end of the day most of the things relating to a startup is based on serving a human/organizational need. If you can translate that need in terms of S.M.A.R.T goals then you are doing 99% better than most of us out there trying to navigate this thing called Entrepreneurship. S.M.A.R.T goals are not just for your startup, they are an effective tool to define Win-Win Performance Agreement with your team.  As part of building a world class team, one of the most important thing the founders/leaders/executives can do is establish a Mentorship based Win-Win Performance Agreement with each and every team member. We are starting to work on this at GreenQloud. Building a startup is hard, raising money for your startup is harder but the most important thing you can do is build a World Class team. It is well within your circle of influence. If your team is effective then all other things fall into place. I always like to say, you cannot guarantee success but you can easily increase your odds of success. One attribute that can exponentially improve your odds is the time you spend in building an effective team around you. I have written about the importance of Team Building. I am surprised when I talk to startups and even investors here in Iceland, how little weightage they give to the Team attribute. IMHO, it is the deciding factor, everything else can be defined, designed, built, scaled or modified, but you can never execute at world class level without building a trusted, aligned and self-motivated team. I love the Avengers movie, how 5 different people, who don’t always like each other come together to fight a good fight. I don’t see a Startup any differently.

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