Our company operates three distinct business units with separate service lines, and our leadership team is struggling to keep our main Scorecard to the recommended five to fifteen numbers. Should we have five to fifteen numbers for each business unit on our leadership Scorecard, or is there a way to roll them up without losing visibility?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your leadership team Scorecard must remain strictly limited to five to fifteen numbers total, regardless of how many business units or locations you operate. If you exceed fifteen numbers, your focus is diluted and you lose the pulse of the business.

The solution is to use the Accountability Chart to create a clear division of labor and data structure. Each business unit leader must have their own departmental Scorecard containing the detailed metrics for their specific operation.

On the leadership team Scorecard, you only track the high-level, consolidated leading indicators that directly impact the overall health of the entire organization. For example, instead of tracking weekly proposal volume for all three business units on the leadership Scorecard, you track the total dollar value of proposals submitted across the entire company.

If that consolidated number falls below target, you drop it to the Issues List and use the Level 10 Meeting to ask the responsible business unit leader to report on which specific unit is falling behind. This approach forces your leadership team to manage by exception. It trusts the departmental Scorecards to handle the micro-level diagnostics, while keeping the leadership Scorecard focused on the vital macro-level indicators.