Many business leaders and some ministry leaders closely follow KPIs…Key Performance Indicators. These help you gauge how your organization is doing.

Leader coach Helen Pleic has another way to look at KPIs and the role of the leader. She says, “Managers measure KPIs. Leaders build people.”

In light of that, Pleic has come up with her own set of KPIs. Here are a few. She says that leaders should:

  • Keep People Inspired with vision. This fuels energy and direction.
  • Keep People Informed with updates. Transparency grows trust.
  • Keep People Interested with growth. Provide projects to keep people engaged.
  • Keep People Improving with training. This helps skills and confidence grow.

Some good thoughts for today’s leaders. And I like the emphasis on people.

I think of Jesus and His twelve disciples. You don’t see Jesus asking his disciples for an accounting of their journeys or activities. You see very little about numbers, apart from the account of the feeding of those crowds with the fish and loaves of bread. That was to show the magnitude of the miracles God performed through His Son.

No, Jesus was more focused on the lives of those who surrounded Him and served Him. The time Jesus told Peter, “…Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail.”

Do you remember the account of the Roman officer who asked Jesus to heal his slave? Before Jesus even reached the officer’s house, the man said all Jesus needed to do was say a word, and the healing would happen. Jesus praised the Roman officer in front of the crowd as a way of teaching them. “I tell you, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel! (Luke 9:9 NLT).”

Helen Pleic says from a leadership point of view, “When you invest in your team, you gain long-term returns.”

The same is true when you invest in the team the Lord has brought into your organization or ministry. We are not simply looking for benchmarks of progress, but for long-term growth in those around us, which leads to greater effectiveness in our ministry calling.

I think of Paul’s instructional words to Timothy. “…bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Timothy 4:8 NASB).”

So… which KPI will you be looking at today?

God’s best,