We understand the theory of leading indicators, but our leadership team keeps falling back on lagging indicators like monthly closed revenue and utilization rates because they are easy to pull. How do we break this habit and transition our Scorecard to true weekly activity-based metrics?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Stop treating your Scorecard like a rear-view mirror. Monthly revenue and utilization are autopsy reports. They tell you what died last month, not what is living and breathing today. To break this habit, you must shift your focus to the weekly activities that directly cause those lagging results. For example, closed revenue does not just happen. It is driven by proposals submitted, which are driven by discovery calls booked, which are driven by outbound marketing touches. Pick one lagging financial metric that you are obsessed with and trace it backward. If your goal is closed contracts, your weekly leading indicator is the number of face-to-face meetings held or proposals sent. If you track utilization, the leading indicator is billable hours scheduled for the upcoming week. Force your leadership team to look ahead by asking a simple question during your Level 10 Meeting™: if this weekly number is green, will we inevitably hit our monthly revenue target? If the answer is no, you are still tracking a lagging metric or the wrong activity. Replace it immediately. The rule of thumb is that your weekly Scorecard must consist of at least eighty percent leading indicators. This gives you the runway to course-correct before a bad week turns into a terrible quarter.