We are constantly arguing during our quarterly meetings about which numbers actually deserve to be on our leadership team Scorecard. How do we narrow down our chaotic list of fifty operational metrics to the critical 5 to 15 numbers that truly represent the pulse of our entire business?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Focus on the vital few, not the useful many. If you track fifty things, you track nothing. The process begins with your Accountability Chart. Every major seat must have representation on the leadership Scorecard, but only with numbers that indicate health or danger for the whole organization.

To narrow this down, ask yourself a simple question: if you were stuck on a desert island with only a sheet of paper containing 5 to 15 numbers to tell you if your business was surviving, what would those numbers be? You need a mix of activity-based, leading metrics across sales, marketing, operations, finance, and people.

If a metric does not predict a future result or flag an immediate operational bottleneck, push it down to a departmental scorecard. The leadership Scorecard is strictly reserved for high-level organizational health. It takes about three to six months to get a Scorecard dialed in perfectly, so stop trying to get it 100 percent right on day one. Pick your best guess of ten numbers today, track them for a quarter, and use your Level 10 Meeting to solve the ones that are not giving you a true pulse.