What are the three most important questions you use to determine whether you are being successful? If you are like many people, your answer might be:

1. Am I adding value?
2. Am I focused on the right things?
3. Am I meeting my customer’s needs?

Those seem reasonable but they are the wrong questions. More importantly, they are the wrong type of questions. All of those questions are process questions. They create the wrong focus.

Process questions remove accountability. Take the question, “Am I adding value?” It’s not quite passive voice, but it’s close. It’s as if the work you do and creating value are two separate things. Once you’ve done the work you are looking back to see if it happened to add value.

Instead, before you do any work, you should ask yourself the question, “What work will add value”. Then, your “success” question should be an outcome question. For example, it might be, “Did I lower costs?” or “Did I improve our customer experience?” Those are outcome questions. Instead of going along hoping that the work you do will add value (in retrospect), you are proactively working toward those things for which you define as adding value. You are taking responsibility and accountability for your actions.

The same is true for the other two questions. Don’t ask if you are focused on the right things. You should know what those are. If you don’t, then your first step is to figure that out. Then, you should ask yourself if you are doing those specific things.

I see process questions a lot. There is a place for them – they should help you figure out the outcomes that you care most about. However, if you want to have a meaningful impact on your organization, you should be measuring your success against outcomes.