When Metrics Lead, Strategy Follows-for the Worse

“Okay, but how will we measure this?”

This question is a staple at executive offsites and strategic planning sessions worldwide. And it’s a good question—but not if it’s the first one.

When organizations lead with numbers, they subtly distort the strategy process. Instead of defining bold outcomes and considering how progress might be measured, they work backward from what’s easily quantified. They reduce vision to data points.

And over time, the metric becomes the mission.

When KPIs come first, outcomes take a back seat.

What You Really Want Can’t Always Be Counted

Some of the most potent strategic outcomes are also the hardest to measure.

• We want our employees to feel like they’re getting more than a paycheck.
• We want customers to trust us more than anyone else in the market.
• We want to be seen as the most thoughtful, responsive partner in our space.

These ambitions are real. They shape how people experience your organization. They influence retention, referrals, and reputation.

But they don’t fit neatly into a dashboard.

When teams skip past these aspirations because they’re “too hard to measure,” they end up chasing safe, shallow goals that look good on paper but don’t create meaningful change.

The Difference Between Metrics and Proxies

Metrics matter. But they’re rarely the whole story.

Most of the time, we’re measuring a proxy—a stand-in for something more complex, more human, and more important.

Take the example of employee experience. You may choose to measure retention rates, engagement scores, or internal mobility. Those can be helpful indicators—but they aren’t the outcome. They don’t tell you if employees feel supported, respected, or energized by their work. They don’t tell you if people are quietly burning out or silently checking out.

That’s the danger of mistaking a proxy for the prize.

You can have great numbers and a failing experience, or messy numbers and a thriving one.

What to Do When You Can’t Measure What Matters

When a team gets stuck trying to invent a metric, it’s often a sign that they’re measuring the wrong thing—or trying to force something inherently unquantifiable into a KPI box.

Here’s a better question:
“What would we observe if this were true?”

Not “What’s the data?” but “What would it look like, sound like, feel like—on the ground, in real life?”

This question does two things:

1. It grounds the conversation in reality—what success would actually look like.
2. It helps identify good enough proxies: measurements that reflect progress without pretending to represent the whole.

For example:
If your outcome is to be seen as an employer that gives people more than a paycheck, your observations might include:

• Employees recommending the company unprompted
• Stories of growth and development shared in team meetings
• Increased participation in optional learning programs

Those aren’t KPIs. But they’re data of a different kind—evidence that your works in ways numbers alone can’t show.

Strategy should start with what matters. Not with what fits in a spreadsheet.

Metrics Matter. But They’re Not the Mission.

Let’s be clear: KPIs are valuable.

They help organizations stay focused, spot issues early, and assess performance over time. But they were never meant to carry the full weight of your strategy.

Used well, metrics illuminate.
Used poorly, they obscure.

The most strategic leaders are fluent in both:

• The language of data and the language of outcomes
• The discipline of tracking and the wisdom to know what tracking can’t capture

Final Thought

Not everything that matters can be measured.
And not everything you can measure matters.

Don’t let your strategy become subordinate to your scorecard. Don’t flatten your boldest ambitions just because they’re hard to count.

If you can’t measure it, observe it.
If you can’t observe it yet, describe it clearly—and build toward it anyway.

Because the most meaningful outcomes aren’t found in your metrics.
They’re felt—in your people, your customers, and your impact.