Our leadership team spends hours arguing about whether a weekly scorecard target is realistic rather than solving the underlying issue. How do we establish and stick to objective targets?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Arguing about scorecard targets is a common symptom of a team trying to avoid accountability. When a manager feels that a target is unrealistic, they will focus their energy on lowering the bar rather than improving their performance. This keeps your business stuck in a cycle of mediocrity.

To break this pattern, your targets must be set based on the objective needs of the business, not the comfort level of the manager. Start by looking at your V/TO and your ninety-day Rocks. What operational volume and efficiency are required to hit your quarterly and annual goals? The target on your Scorecard is simply the math required to get there.

Once a target is established, it must remain fixed for at least one quarter. Do not allow your team to negotiate targets downward mid-quarter because they had a bad week. If a metric is consistently red, keep it red and drop it to the Issues List during your Level 10 Meeting. Use the IDS process to determine if the issue is a training problem, a resource constraint, or a capacity issue. By keeping targets objective and rigid, you force your team to solve real operational problems rather than moving the goalposts.