The Push and Pull of Metrics and Stories: A CEO's Reflection

When I was 11 years old, my dad taught me how to replace a flat tire. 

But apparently, I didn’t do it right because when we were driving that same car down a hill later that day, the whole wheel came off and went bouncing down the road in front of us (true story). Spoiler alert: we were all fine. Although the car was seriously jacked up.

Well, I think that’s a good analogy for how it feels to be a verbal processor. 

Words just spill out of your mouth before your idea is fully formed and then all of a sudden the thought is bouncing down the hill out of reach and you can’t get the words back.

I’m not sure if anyone else is a verbal processor but it can either (a) get you into trouble OR (b) it can produce absolute gold. 

So, today let’s explore something I verbally processed a few weeks ago. At the end you can tell me if we’re onto something, or if it’s hot garbage. 

Here’s what I shared:

Metrics keep you up at night and stories get you out of bed in the morning.

Sometimes I use ‘what keeps you up at night’ as a synonym for what just takes up your brain space. But in this case, I really was thinking about the former. 

Right from when I started in SaaS as an SDR I used to obsess over metrics in my head and overanalyze how I could get better. 

Now that I’m CEO, I do the same thing but the metrics are just much broader:

• How do we build even better customer experiences?

• What would it take to multiply the number of returning customers year over year?

• How could we better position ourselves to ensure buyers know exactly what we’re offering?

• And so on and so forth…

But it also seems to be the metrics that keep me up wondering all the time. I wonder if I’m just wired that way or if others relate to that too?

And then it’s the stories that get me fired up and motivated to attack the day.
Like this quote from a customer recently:

“Leadr is where we are going to create greater clarity and promote more organizational health across all of our divisions with all of our people..."

Or I love staff stories like this where people are experiencing real growth and transformation working at Leadr:

"My time here has helped me see things in myself that I couldn't see before on my own. I'm finding my voice again after feeling like I wasn't a worthy person to listen to."

That stuff just gets my juices going. It fills me with so much energy and enthusiasm. 

Not only that, but the qualitative stories begin to overshadow the quantitative metrics…. 

…and those scary metrics start to feel a little less scary.  

I also realized as I’m ‘writing’ processing this (is that a thing?) that whether it’s keeping you up at night or getting you out of bed in the morning - either way, they’re both really motivating. 

It’s almost like a push-and-pull thing.

The metrics pull me, the stories push me.

What about you? 

What’s the bigger motivator, metrics or stories? And why?

Thanks for reading,

MT