Each level of manager in each separate department, division, or unit has more or less responsibility and, therefore, smaller or broader measures depending on his or her level. This is one part of going back to the basics.
Another part of the basics that many of WLP professionals
In the Information Age, people have no time. They are completely focused on value in the terms that they know it by. They simply will not translate for you what you are trying to say. Your Senior managers want you to act like a salesperson. A key reason is that salespeople know it is their job to make that translation because no one will give five minutes of their time to translate for them.
A personal story may help
| Important ‚ |
Translating value is your job. If you force others to make a translation for you, they will either assume there is no value, or they will draw their own conclusion. Just as in the game of ‚“Rumor, ‚½ their conclusions may not bear any resemblance to what you wanted them to hear. That can be disastrous to making a sale. It is also disastrous in communicating value. If you are being
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Even if you are giving people information at their level and in their terms, you may still be overlooking another basic piece of the puzzle. In figure 2-2, the final piece of the picture is the timeframe that each audience is interested in. Knowing the timeframe of each level ‚ s measures is important when you are showing that you can follow the value story down the chain and that you get the code.
Timeframes are dynamic. What the levels of management care about depends very much on how the economy is doing. In a poor economy, urgency goes up and time gets even shorter. All measurement timeframes compress. Table 2-1 offers some guidelines about the effect of the economy overall.
|
Financial Value Chain Level |
Good Economy |
Poor Economy |
|---|---|---|
|
Senior |
Manages financial measures to meet the goals of a three-to five-year period |
Wants to know what you can do for them in a year |
|
Mid |
Works to achieve goals within a one- to three-year period |
Wants to hear about results you can achieve in this quarter |
|
1st/Ops |
Manages in a timeframe of one quarter to one year |
Needs information that will help them in four to six weeks |
|
Individual |
Works in one-week to one-quarter periods |
Needs immediate daily or weekly help from your program |
You not only need to match your value to the terms of the audience, but you must also