Our leadership team is excellent at reviewing past financial performance, but we are consistently blindsided by missed quarterly targets because we do not have forward-looking metrics. How do we force our leaders to own and track leading indicators on our Scorecard?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

To transition your leadership team from analyzing historical data to managing forward-looking metrics, you must redesign your weekly Scorecard. Most teams fall into the trap of tracking lagging indicators, such as closed sales or monthly revenue, which only tell you what happened in the past when it is too late to make adjustments.

Leading indicators tell you what will happen in the future. For example, instead of tracking signed contracts, track the number of discovery calls booked or proposals sent. Instead of tracking completed projects, track weekly milestone achievements.

To implement this shift, go through your Accountability Chart and assign every leader a single, forward-looking metric that they own. This metric must be a weekly activity that directly predicts their department's monthly performance.

Review these leading indicators during the first ten minutes of your weekly Level 10 Meetings. If a metric is off-track, drop it down to the Issues list and use the IDS process to solve the underlying problem immediately.

By focusing your leadership team on these active weekly inputs, you prevent surprises, drive operational consistency, and demonstrate to future buyers that your business operates with predictable control.