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Every sport maintains careful and complete statistics on their performance and use systems (training, warm up, diet, body mechanics, etc.) to improve performance. The pros monitor the stats RELIGIOUSLY. They know their numbers inside and out. Why? Because the numbers are their tool for monitoring performance. It is the only way they can get to the top of their game. And they follow their systems RELIGIOUSLY because they know it is the only way to improve performance. Spirit and enthusiasm are important, but without the stats and the systems, they will not reach their goals.

Do you think there is any successful athlete who does not study their numbers and follow systems? I don’t think so.

Is tracking and studying your numbers or following a system something that is easy or front of mind? No. It’s a learned discipline. People would much prefer to follow their preferences and feelings.

As an individual professional you owe it to yourself to track and study your statistics and develop and use systems for running your business.

As managers, you owe it to your people to teach them to interpret their stats effectively and maintain the tracking systems. The irony is this: When people do this, their performance and end result improve and their stress levels go down. When they forget to do it, things get sloppy and their effectiveness goes down which increases their stress. As a manager, your job is easier if your people know their stats and use the systems.

The discipline of business is the art of living. The little things ignored turn into the big problems. Statistics are the earliest data you have of when a change begins to happen. The stats will start to show a shift before the shift shows in the result. Following systems is your best insurance of knowing that things are on track and moving towards the desired outcome.

Keep this thought right beside Evolve or Perish: Maintaining good records won’t guarantee success but bad records will guarantee failure.

Make sure that you are doing weekly updates and going over the numbers in detail. Teach your people how to get the most out of understanding their data and using their systems. If you do this effectively, you will see constant improvement and everyone will have more fun.

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