Why What You Measure Is What You Actually Value
I was reading recently and came across this quote: "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
I was reading recently and came across this quote: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
It’s true. What you measure matters because it shows what you actually care about, not what you claim to care about.
It also made me think about something I see everywhere in business. Companies say they value people and culture, but they spend all their time tracking money and performance numbers.
Your Real Treasure
Walk into any management meeting and watch what gets attention. Revenue numbers, cost reports, performance metrics get discussed in detail. These numbers are tracked daily, analyzed thoroughly, and cause real stress when they go wrong.
Ask about employee satisfaction, character development, or team relationships and you’ll get brief updates. “Everything’s fine, let’s move on.”
Your treasure isn’t what you say matters. It’s what you spend time measuring and worrying about.
Culture Follows What You Track
Most businesses write mission statements about values and people, then spend their meetings talking about numbers. They create posters about teamwork, then only measure individual performance. They talk about long-term thinking, then panic about monthly results.
Then they wonder why their culture doesn’t match their values.
Don’t get me wrong – profit absolutely matters. Without it, there’s no company to have culture about. But when profit is the only thing you track carefully, it becomes your only priority.
What you measure matters because it shapes what you actually care about. And what you care about determines how everyone behaves.
What Gets Your Heart
Every manager knows their key numbers instantly. Sales figures, productivity rates, error counts roll off their tongue because they check them constantly.
Ask about team morale or character and they pause. Maybe they have some data from last quarter’s survey, but it’s not fresh in their mind.
That’s where their heart actually is. Where your heart is determines how you lead, what you reward, and what gets ignored.
The Character Problem
Do you measure character at all?
Most companies measure skills obsessively. Sales results, project completion, technical performance. But character – honesty, reliability, how people treat others – rarely gets systematic attention.
You hire for skills and fire for character problems. But if character isn’t tracked systematically, you won’t spot issues until they’re expensive. What you measure matters more than what you hope for.
What This Looks Like
You measure revenue daily but check employee satisfaction once a year. Your heart is with the money, not the people.
You track individual performance in detail but barely notice team collaboration. Your heart is with personal achievement, not group success.
You obsess over quarterly results but give long-term relationships a quick mention. Your heart is with short-term gains, not lasting value.
Your treasure determines where your heart goes.
Making Real Change
You can’t fake where your heart is, but you can change where your treasure lies.
Start measuring what you say matters with the same intensity you measure revenue. If people matter, track satisfaction and development weekly, not yearly. If character matters, find ways to measure reliability and how people treat others.
Remember, what you measure matters more than what you post on walls. Your measurements will drive behavior whether you intend them to or not.
But don’t just add new measurements on top of old ones. If financial metrics still dominate your meetings, they’ll still dominate your heart.
You need to shift your treasure, not just expand it.
The Test
Look at your calendar and your dashboard. What do you review most often? What numbers do you know by heart? What data makes you stressed when it’s wrong?
That’s where your treasure is. And where your treasure is, your heart follows.
If you want a different culture, measure different things. Because your heart will always follow your treasure, and your organization will follow your heart.
