I understand every number on our leadership Scorecard must have a single owner, but my department heads keep claiming they cannot personally control the weekly output of their frontline staff. How do I force true ownership of these numbers at the leadership table?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a department head says they cannot control their team's output, they are misunderstanding what it means to own a Scorecard number. Ownership on the Accountability Chart does not mean you are the one physically executing the task. It means you are the single point of accountability for that result. If the number is red, you are the person who must explain why and lead the effort to solve it during the Level 10 Meeting.

To break this resistance, point your leaders back to their GWC. If they get, want, and have the capacity to lead their department, they must also own the outcomes of that department. They control the processes, the training, the resource allocation, and the people running the frontline activities. If their team is missing their numbers, the leader has a process issue or a people issue that they need to identify and solve.

Stop letting leaders use their teams as a shield. When a number is red, the owner of that number does not get to say their team did not perform. They must state that the target was missed, drop the issue down to the IDS portion of the meeting, and work with the leadership team to find a permanent solution. That is true accountability.