Some of our leadership team members have hit their weekly Scorecard targets for six months straight without a single red week. We suspect they are sandbagged targets designed to look good. How do we challenge and audit these numbers to ensure our targets actually drive growth?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a metric on your Scorecard is green for six months straight, it is often a sign of sandbagging. While a green Scorecard looks comforting, it actually indicates that your targets are set too low to drive meaningful operational improvement, or that you are tracking the wrong activities.

A healthy Scorecard should have occasional red weeks. Red is not a failure; it is an early warning system that highlights an issue before it impacts your financial results.

To audit and challenge your targets, take these steps:
- Review any metric that has been green for more than twelve consecutive weeks during your quarterly same-page meeting.
- Challenge the seat owner to raise the target by ten to twenty percent to test the limits of their system.
- Assess if the metric is still a critical leading indicator or if it has simply become a comfortable routine.

If raising the target is not appropriate because the current level represents maximum capacity, consider replacing the metric. You may need to track a different activity that is a higher priority for your current business constraints.

Your Scorecard targets must stretch your team and reflect the goals in your V/TO. If your targets are too easy to hit, you are playing defense instead of offense. Raise the bar, embrace the red numbers, and use them to drive breakthrough performance.