Our leadership team Scorecard has twelve weekly metrics, but they are all historical numbers that tell us what happened last week. How do we transition our Scorecard to include leading indicators so we can predict and prevent operational problems?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Scorecard filled only with historical, lagging indicators is like trying to drive a car by only looking in the rearview mirror. It tells you where you have been, but it does not prevent you from crashing. To build a truly predictive tool, you must identify leading indicators that forecast future results.

To find your leading indicators, look at the activities that directly produce your lagging outcomes. For example, if your lagging indicator is new closed sales, your leading indicators might be the number of outbound discovery calls made or first-time sales presentations delivered. If your lagging indicator is project delivery on time, your leading indicators might be daily production hours scheduled or inventory levels of key materials.

Every seat on your Accountability Chart™ should have at least one weekly metric that measures activity, not just results. These activity metrics are completely within the control of the team member. If a sales representative did not make their target number of calls this week, you can predict a drop in closed sales next month.

Once you identify these metrics, set clear weekly targets for each. When a leading indicator falls below its target, it must immediately go on the Issues List for your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. This allows your leadership team to intervene and solve the problem before it turns into a missed lagging goal at the end of the month.