We have multiple partners on our leadership team who share responsibility for client retention. How do we assign scorecard ownership when a metric spans across multiple departments or is shared by more than one leader?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

On an EOS® Accountability Chart, there is a fundamental rule: only one person can own a seat, and only one person can own a number. When multiple partners or department heads share ownership of a Scorecard metric, accountability evaporates. If everyone is responsible for client retention, then no one is responsible.

To resolve this, you must look at your Accountability Chart and determine who has ultimate accountability for the client retention seat. While sales, marketing, and operations all influence retention, only one seat on your leadership team is ultimately responsible for the overall retention rate. That seat owner must own the high-level metric on the leadership Scorecard.

If the issue is that the high-level metric is too broad to be owned by one person, you must break the metric down into its component parts. For example, your client success director can own the client health score metric, while your operations director owns the service delivery SLA compliance metric. Your sales director can own the contract renewal rate metric.

Each of these individual metrics rolling up to different owners gives you a clear picture of client retention without diluting accountability. When a metric goes red, you do not want a group of partners looking at each other. You want a single owner who GWC™, Gets It, Wants It, and has the Capacity to do it, standing up in your Level 10 Meeting™ to say that they own the miss and will lead the IDS® process to solve it.