Many business leaders are instinctive “trackers” by nature, motivated to monitor daily activity in their personal lives as well as their workplace in order to improve business performance and hone their leadership skills, a study commissioned by E.ON has found.
Some 70 per cent of the 1,000 bosses surveyed said tracking behaviour permeates their home lives, with large numbers monitoring performance in areas such as exercise and weight (41 per cent), sleep patterns (17 per cent) and social media followers (13 per cent), as well as financial outgoings such as energy and living budgets.
‘What gets measured, gets managed’ is a common business phrase and it’s interesting to see that many business leaders take as much trouble to track key elements in their personal lives as well as their business behaviours, and see real benefits in doing so,” says Anthony Ainsworth, business energy director at E.ON.
The study was conducted to understand the motivations behind monitoring and how it helps business leaders to meet their goals.
Participants directly linked success – both at work and at home – to their ability to stay on top of the daily details, helping them feel more in control (56 per cent), calm (28 per cent) and more disciplined (21 per cent) as business leaders.
“Through our research we identified some key character traits when it comes to tracking business data, ranging from the obsessive to the nonchalant,” says Ainsworth.
The research found that more than three-quarters of bosses are highly engaged in performance monitoring in their workplaces, either personally (37 per cent) or by delegating to others (40 per cent).
On the flip-side, over a fifth said they were either laid-back or only interested in focusing on the finer details of company affairs when that activity could be seen to have a direct benefit on the bottom line (15 per cent).
“Experience tells us the more engaged you are in monitoring things like energy and expenditure, the more significant are the savings which can be made,” adds Ainsworth.
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