In the Navy we have become obsessed with numbers, metrics and the quantification/measurement of work. While not a fan of the this trend in general, I will concede that for examining huge amounts of data, or trends across an entire fleet, class or squadron, it can be useful.
We must watch out, however, that the trend does not trickle down too far. Where it may make sense for an Admiral to use metrics to make fleet-wide decisions, it has absolutely no place in the day-to-day management of personnel.
The simple reason for this is the fact that we tend to forget, work can not be measured on a scale. In fact, work is binary. A task has been completed or not. An engine which is 95% repaired won't run.
I hate to keep jumping back to the productivity philosophy of David Allen, but, he has a lot of great ideas. The applicable one in this case is that every job or project can be boiled down to a series of recognizable physical actions. Each of these actions is either complete or incomplete. Therefore, the project itself is only complete when each of the actions is complete. It's ones or zeros, nothing else.
The difficulty in applying this as a leader is that the onus for defining what makes the job complete rests with us. Only with a clearly defined end state can one determine if the work rates a one or a zero.
It is much easier as a manager to present a nebulous goal and cook up an arbitrary number on a scale attempting to define how well you think the subordinate has done.
I hear what you are thinking now. You shouldn't have to spell out every single step for each of the people who works for you. They should be able to figure out for themselves what needs to be done.
That is certainly true, but you must present them with an understandable “binary point” to determine where they are going with their efforts. You must declare what the 'one' looks like and let them know that everything else is a 'zero'.
Only when they see that clear line in the sand will your people be able to produce the results you want. But you are the only one who can show them.
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