Patio Pondering: When ABCs and 123s Replace Real Conversations

This morning broke with unseasonably cool temperatures. Instead of the dog days of summer, with heat and humidity pressing in, we left the house in sweatshirts, seat warmers on for my morning Soccer Dad duties. Now my coffee is hot here on the patio, the sun is shining through the mist rising off the pond and yard, and my thoughts are churning.

Last night, while working on promotional plans for the next 90 days, I scrolled through LinkedIn. A job suggestion for a Sales Manager role popped up. Reading the description, two things struck me: first, the wall of acronyms like KPI and ROI. Second, the heavy reliance on performance metrics to define success. What was missing was just as loud: communication.

And that absence struck a chord with me, because the times I grew most in my career were under bosses who communicated regularly. That’s not coincidence.

I remember a line that should have been a red flag: “If you don’t send me that report, I can’t tell my boss what you are doing.”

But a report is one-way communication, just words and numbers in a spreadsheet easily manipulated and fabricated. In the absence of real communication, we fall victim to what I recently wrote about: rumors and misinformation spoken behind closed doors becoming truth. What I needed were two-way conversations, monthly one-on-ones that were never honored. Like a good podcast interview, the real insights come when you ask, listen, and exchange ideas.

Too often, we make decisions about people, marketing plans, or sales objectives based only on numbers. KPI. ROI. Sales calls per sale. A whole alphabet soup of metrics. The problem is those numbers assume everyone communicates and performs the same way. They don’t. Some thrive on reports; others need conversation. Reports are a one-way street, capturing results but not nuance. Real conversations, like the kind I have on my podcast, reveal the person behind them.

Imagine the strength of our decisions if we paired metrics with conversations; if we actually looked at the person in personnel.