It does for his teams. Instead of telling people how to do it, leaders need to empower individuals and teams to accomplish the mission with available resources in a way that they think is best. Sometimes, the best leaders know how to set the stage and then have self-restraint in meddling in what they do. Welcome to the challenge of keeping your mission and measurements working for you and your team. You have to know how to argue with data.
Data are about the past.
Strategic inflection points are about the future. Wander into the cafeteria, and you can't help but partake of the company's financials. On one wall, different colors of duct tape trace sales growth over the past three years. Next to that, a chalkboard breaks out daily sales as compared to last year's. On one recent afternoon, when the signs flashed the news, 'We cracked a 750-store drug chain, ' all 170 or so employees burst into applause.