Our leadership team is struggling to build our weekly Scorecard. We keep arguing over whether to track final revenue results or daily operational activities, leaving us with a scorecard that is either too complicated or completely backward-looking. How do we strike the right balance?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A highly effective weekly Scorecard must focus primarily on leading indicators rather than lagging results. Revenue, net profit, and completed projects are lagging indicators. By the time you see these numbers on your scorecard, the work is done and you cannot change the outcome. You are essentially steering the business by looking in the rearview mirror. To fix this, identify the daily and weekly activities that directly produce those lagging results. For example, if your goal is fifty thousand dollars in new weekly sales, your leading indicators might be the number of outbound calls made, meetings scheduled, or proposals sent. If you hit your targets for these active metrics, the revenue will follow naturally. Your scorecard should contain five to fifteen high-level weekly numbers that give you a pulse on the business. Every number must have a clear target and a single owner on the Accountability Chart who is responsible for keeping it green. If a metric goes red, it immediately drops to your weekly Issues List to be solved using IDS®. By focusing on activities you can control in real-time, you gain the ability to predict your financial performance weeks in advance.