Our business experiences extreme seasonal swings, which makes static weekly Scorecard targets feel completely irrelevant during our slow winter months or our chaotic summer peak. How do we handle Scorecard targets for a highly seasonal business without constantly changing our metrics?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Constant changes to your Scorecard targets destroy accountability because the team stops taking the goals seriously. However, keeping static goals during a seasonal drop makes the targets look impossibly high, which leads to team discouragement. To solve this, you must use dynamic, season-adjusted targets while keeping the actual metrics identical. Before the start of your fiscal year, map out your seasonal cycles and establish pre-approved targets for each quarter or month. For example, your target for weekly sales calls might be fifty during the peak season, but twenty-five during the slow season. When you set these targets, update them on the Scorecard in blocks. This ensures the team always knows what the current target is based on the season. Another strategy is to track your numbers as a rolling average or as a percentage of the seasonal budget. For instance, instead of tracking a raw dollar amount of sales, track the percentage of the seasonal sales plan achieved week-to-date. This keeps the focus on performance relative to the plan, rather than the raw volume of work. Regardless of the season, the owner of the metric on the Accountability Chart remains responsible for hitting the adjusted target. This dynamic approach keeps your Scorecard relevant, accurate, and fair all year long.