We are struggling to keep our weekly leadership team Scorecard focused on high-level activity metrics, and we find ourselves adding too many operational details. How do we determine the difference between a true leadership Scorecard number and a departmental operational KPI?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

The leadership team Scorecard is designed to give you a high level, forward looking view of the business. It should consist of five to fifteen activity based leading indicators that tell you if you are on track to hit your goals. If your Scorecard is cluttered with detailed operational KPIs, you will lose your ability to spot major trends.

To separate leadership metrics from departmental KPIs, look at who owns the decision making power. A leadership team Scorecard metric must be a number that, if it goes off track, requires the attention of the entire leadership team to solve. For example, weekly sales revenue or total weekly cash flow are leadership metrics.

In contrast, departmental KPIs are granular activities that support those high level numbers. For example, the number of outbound calls made by a specific sales representative is a departmental KPI. It belongs on the sales department scorecard, not the leadership team Scorecard. The head of sales should monitor this metric weekly and only bring it to the leadership team if it is consistently failing and impacting the broader sales revenue goal.

Keep your leadership Scorecard focused on the vital signs of the business. If a metric can be managed and resolved within a specific department, keep it on that department scorecard. This keeps your leadership meetings focused on strategic issues rather than micro management.