Our leadership team is stuck with 40 numbers on our master spreadsheet, and every department head argues their metrics are too critical to drop. How do we prune this down to 5 to 15 numbers that actually give us a pulse on the company without losing operational visibility?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Having forty numbers on your master spreadsheet means you have no focus. A true leadership team scorecard must have only five to fifteen high-level numbers that provide a real-time pulse on the entire business. If you are tracking everything, you are actually tracking nothing. The secret to pruning your scorecard is to push operational details down to the department level on your Accountability Chart.

First, clarify the difference between leadership metrics and departmental metrics. The leadership scorecard should only show the ultimate indicators of business health, like cash, sales pipeline value, and capacity.

Second, use the desert island test. If you were stranded on an island with only a phone to receive ten numbers once a week, what ten numbers would tell you if your business is surviving or dying?

Third, push the other twenty-five numbers down to departmental scorecards managed by your leadership team members in their respective seats. This keeps your weekly Level 10 Meeting™ focused on strategic issues rather than micro-management, while ensuring no operational visibility is actually lost.