We rely heavily on outsourced agencies and fractional leaders for our marketing and bookkeeping functions. Should external contractors have measurables on our leadership Scorecard, or does that violate EOS principles?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

External contractors must be held to clear measurables, but they should rarely report directly onto your leadership team Scorecard. The leadership Scorecard is designed to reflect the accountability of the leadership seats defined on your Accountability Chart. Every seat on that chart must have exactly one leader's name attached to it. That internal leader is entirely accountable for the outcomes of that function, whether execution is handled by in-house staff or external vendors.

If you use a fractional leader who formally occupies a seat on your leadership team, attends your weekly Level 10 Meeting, and exhibits full GWC for that seat, that fractional executive owns their seat's Scorecard measurables just like any full-time employee. They report their numbers weekly without exception.

However, if you are working with an external agency, such as an outsourced digital marketing firm or third-party bookkeeping service, the internal leader who manages that vendor owns the measurable on the leadership Scorecard:

- Your sales or marketing seat owner reports the weekly qualified leads delivered by the agency.
- Your finance or operations seat owner reports the weekly bank reconciliation and invoicing metrics handled by the outsourced bookkeeper.

The agency's contract should include strict weekly deliverables that mirror your operational requirements. The internal seat owner reviews the agency's performance data weekly and inputs the numbers into the company Scorecard. If the agency misses the mark, the internal seat owner drops the issue to the Issues List. You never allow an outside agency to hide behind a monthly retainer without holding them to weekly quantitative standards managed directly by your leadership team.