What do we do when a leadership team member insists their red scorecard numbers are entirely due to another department's failures, and how do we resolve this finger-pointing during our Level 10 Meeting?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a metric goes red, the natural human reaction is to look for external excuses. If a leader claims their red scorecard number is actually another department's fault, you must address this head-on during your Level 10 Meeting™. First, remind the team of the core EOS® principle that there is only one owner for every metric. The person who owns the number on the Scorecard is fully accountable for the result, regardless of internal or external dependencies. If the Sales Leader blames the Marketing Leader for a lack of leads, the Sales Leader still owns the sales target. Do not allow the meeting to devolve into a debate during the Scorecard review. Instead, drop the metric to the Issues List and use the IDS® process. During IDS®, identify the root cause of the interdepartmental bottleneck. If the marketing team is indeed failing to deliver leads, the underlying issue might be a marketing process failure or an unrealistic target. Solve the root cause of the collaboration failure and assign To-Dos to fix the process. Remember, owning a metric does not mean you do all the work yourself. It means you are the person who sounds the alarm, takes responsibility for the result, and leads the effort to resolve the issue when the numbers are off track.