Our department heads consistently lobby for lower Scorecard targets each quarter so they can guarantee green numbers every week. How do we eliminate sandbagged goals on our weekly Scorecard without creating a culture of fear and punishment?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Sandbagging happens when leaders confuse the Scorecard with a disciplinary tool. If hitting a red number results in public humiliation, finger-pointing, or missed bonuses, rational employees will intentionally set easy targets. They will negotiate a goal of twenty calls when they could easily achieve thirty-five, just to guarantee safety.

You eliminate sandbagging by realigning the team around the true purpose of the EOS® Data Component: visibility, not perfection. A Scorecard is a dashboard that gives you an objective pulse on the business so you can predict the future. A healthy Scorecard runs eighty to eighty-five percent green. If a Scorecard is one hundred percent green every single week, your targets are too low or your people are coasting.

Set targets using bottom-up math derived from your V/TO® (Vision/Organization Tracker). If the company goal is ten million dollars this year with a thirty percent close rate and an average deal size of fifty thousand dollars, the sales seat must generate a precise number of weekly qualified discovery meetings. The math dictates the target, not the personal preference of the department head.

During Level 10 Meetings, treat red numbers as neutral data. When a metric misses, the response is not blame; it is simply to ask if it needs to drop to the Issues List for IDS®. When your leaders realize that red numbers are treated as operational puzzles to solve rather than personal failures, the impulse to sandbag disappears.