Written By: Ariana Geneva

Measuring your progress while training for a marathon can be done two ways: by looking at things like your time per mile each week, which should decrease over time, or in miles run per week, which should increase each week you get closer to your goal. These pace times or mileage per week are known as Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs. They are metrics that can help you track tangible progress, or lack thereof, towards your goals. 

From a business perspective you can utilize KPIs like monthly sales targets, new clients added over a period of time, customer engagement to a specific ad campaign, and more. 

What makes a good Key Performance Indicator? KPI.org suggests that good KPIs possess the following qualities:

• Provide objective evidence of progress towards achieving a desired result

• Measure what is intended to be measured to help inform better decision making

• Offer a comparison that gauges the degree of performance change over time

• Can track efficiency, effectiveness, quality, timeliness, governance, compliance, behaviors, economics, project performance, personnel performance, or resource utilization

• Are balanced between leading and lagging indicators

Example of KPIs in Marathon Training:

• My FitBit tracks my miles and my pace. Each increase in mileage or time improvement for my pace times are evidence of my progress.

• My training log is another place I can map my progress. I compare pace, my effort week to week, how I felt before and after training runs to help track my recovery, and cross training efforts and improvements.

• Participation in weekly group runs with Breakaway Running provide not only support but also outside feedback before, during, and after runs. 

While measuring your progress, you should also aim to set other good habits in regards to maintaining and revising your plan for goal attainment. Marathon training can throw any number of roadblocks in your way that can impact your training. Weather conditions, injuries, a change in your working schedule can all impact your training that requires a shift in approach. The same can be said in the business world. Changes in the market can cause increases or slow down in a production chain that can affect your efforts towards a goal. Personnel changes can lead to an unforeseen restructuring to your team that would require retraining and add to your goals timeline. You want to keep your goals attainable as well as realistic and regularly monitoring your progress and occasionally revising your plan of action can help you stay on track to accomplishing your final goal.

For business projects, calendars and deadlines with reminders specifically assigned to each task for completion are a great way to automate and keep everyone on track. Regular revision and analysis of your progress and plan is important, especially if new information can help you achieve your goal faster than you originally anticipated! Schedule regular meetings specifically for review of your goals and progress. Don’t just wait until the deadline date to see if you met your goal. Active participation in this process helps you set more specific goals and objectives, as well as make adjustments as needed to keep your progress on track! 

Nothing feels better than attaining your goal. Marathon runners celebrate the moment they cross the finish line! Smiles and tears, and beers, abound after the long, arduous goal is met! The same should be said for your business goals. Take the time to acknowledge when you have met your goals. You set a goal for your business for a reason, so celebrate the accomplishment. It is also important to congratulate your team that worked just as hard to help you meet your business goals. If you thank your team members for their work, you will find your team will be more likely to want to help to achieve future project goals as well. Appreciation is motivation! 

I hope these tips and tools help you and your business set and achieve new goals, or old goals that didn’t quite get prioritized the way they should have!