September 3, 2026

What are your Metrics for Success?

You Get To Decide What Works

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

What are your metrics for success? What measuring tape do you use to determine whether you are effective or successful? You get to decide. In fact, you will be more effective if you decide for yourself rather than only letting others decide for you. I used to think other people decided my level of success for me. I waited for external feedback to know if I was doing well at a job or at school. I wondered if people noticed when I worked hard or accomplished a task well and if they would acknowledge my work. When I moved to running a small business on my own, it became harder to set metrics for success and know if I was doing well. I started to realize that I could decide what the metric was and give myself feedback.

Finding the Right Metric

If the metrics you are looking at aren’t useful in optimizing your strategy, stop looking at them.

-Mark Twain

Until a recent coaching supervision group session, I was basing the success of my business solely on the number of clients I had at any given time. This turned out to be a problematic metric as the number of coaching clients changed all the time. It was a roller coaster of many clients to a few clients to many clients again. The cycle seems to be the nature of the coaching business, I soon realized. I was basing my worth, value, and success on one measurement, which was not effectively measuring what I needed it to. This was similar to being a student in school. I measured my success by the final grade I received in a class. One metric at the end of a term or even a year. In the work world, I measured my success largely on the external feedback I received from stakeholders around me: parents, faculty, other administrators. External feedback can be a good measure, and it is only one metric. We need more metrics and we need to know what we are trying to measure.

Determining Value vs. Metrics

If I could go back to these experiences, I would offer myself time to think about the metrics I was using and what they were telling me, individually and collectively. I would also try to use more than one meter. Of course, as a small business owner, I do need to think about the number of clients and the revenue that leads to it so I can be a financially sustainable business. I also need to think of other metrics. What is the value I bring to my clients? How do I know I bring that value? How am I continuing to grow in my profession? How do I know I am growing? What is the evidence? What do clients think of the experience?

If you discover that you are using only one metric to measure your growth or success, consider the following:

  • Is this meter measuring what I want it to measure?
  • Are there other meters I can be using?
  • What do I want to measure?
  • What areas do I want to grow, as a professional, parent, or leader?
  • What value do I bring to my team, my clients, my stakeholders, my family?
  • How do I measure that?
  • What evidence do I need to know I am effective?
  • Am I using metrics that include a variety of types of feedback (external feedback, evaluations, self-reflections, evidence-based reflections)?

The Measured vs. The Felt

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

-William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking

I began this exploration of varied metrics. With guidance from my supervision group, I discovered two categories: measurable metrics and felt metrics. For me, a measurable metric might be the number of clients, the income, or the profile of the type of client I am trying to reach. A felt metric might be answering the question: Do I feel joy and fulfillment from this work?

For each metric…

  • Identify and define the metric.
  • Decide how you will measure it or feel it. What will be the indicators or the evidence?
  • Create time intervals to reflect on the metric regularly. How am I doing? Do these still work for me? Are they measuring what I want? 

Throughout life, there will be metrics that are put upon us and we have to navigate (grades, professional evaluations). There will also be opportunities for us to create our own metrics for growth. Look for those opportunities. Create those metrics that are meaningful to you and your growth and see what happens.