Our company operates three highly distinct business units under one umbrella, and we are struggling to condense our weekly leadership Scorecard to just 5 to 15 numbers without leaving a major division completely in the dark. How do we select 12 high-level metrics that represent the entire enterprise pulse?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Operating multiple business units does not justify a bloated leadership Scorecard. If your leadership team is tracking forty metrics, you do not have a pulse, you have noise. To keep your Scorecard between five and fifteen numbers, you must separate your leadership metrics from your departmental metrics.

The leadership Scorecard is designed to monitor the health of the entire enterprise. It should only contain high-level, consolidating metrics that flag major operational issues. You do not need to see every detail of every division. Instead, you need one or two key leading indicators per business unit.

For example, if you run a service division, a manufacturing division, and a retail division, your leadership Scorecard might track weekly proposal value for the service division, production yield for the manufacturing division, and foot traffic for the retail division.

Each division leader should run their own departmental Level 10 Meeting™ with a localized scorecard. Those departmental scorecards can contain the detailed, granular numbers. If a departmental number goes red for multiple weeks, the division leader drops it to their own Issues List. Only when the issue threatens the overall health of the company does it elevate to the leadership level.

Trust your Accountability Chart. Let your department heads manage the details while the leadership team monitors the high-level pulse of the organization.