Our weekly Scorecard is packed with lagging indicators that only tell us what went wrong last month, leaving our Level 10 Meetings™ feeling like a series of autopsy reports rather than a forward-looking pulse. How do we transition our Scorecard to true leading indicators?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A Scorecard primarily featuring lagging indicators is akin to driving a car while only looking in the rearview mirror. If your Level 10 Meetings™ feel more like autopsy reports, it's because you're reviewing historical data rather than actively managing real-time activity. This makes your weekly pulse reactive and consequently, ineffective.

To effectively transform your Scorecard, you must proactively replace these lagging results with leading activities. A leading indicator is a measurable weekly action that directly predicts a future result.

For example:
• Instead of solely tracking monthly revenue (a lagging indicator), you might track weekly sales appointments booked or proposals sent as leading indicators. These activities directly precede revenue generation.
• For client satisfaction, rather than just tracking monthly churn, you could track weekly proactive client check-in calls or solution presentations delivered to existing clients.

Every seat on your [Accountability Chart](/qa/promoting-internal-operations-manager-integrator) must identify the specific, measurable weekly activities that drive their primary outcomes. Work with your leadership team to define five to fifteen leading metrics that give you a true, forward-looking pulse of the business. For guidance on selecting these, you might find [how to choose five-fifteen scorecard metrics](/qa/how-to-choose-five-fifteen-scorecard-metrics) helpful.

When these leading metrics are off-track, you gain the ability to predict and prevent potential cash-flow or delivery issues weeks before they negatively impact your financial statements. This proactive management approach is a hallmark of highly valuable companies to investors, indicating a well-oiled operational machine. It ensures your Level 10 Meetings™ are focused on preventing future problems rather than merely reacting to past failures. This shift in focus is key to making your [Level 10 Meetings™](/qa/how-to-review-scorecard-under-five-minutes) more productive.

Related questions

• [How do we shift our focus from lagging results to weekly leading indicators?](/qa/leading-vs-lagging-scorecard-metrics)
• [How do we narrow down our massive list of metrics to just five to fifteen numbers?](/qa/how-to-choose-five-fifteen-scorecard-metrics)
• [What concrete weekly measurables should we track for our accounting and IT seats](/qa/back-office-weekly-scorecard-measurables)
• [When is it appropriate to change a scorecard number, and how do we do it without losing historical consistency?](/qa/when-to-change-weekly-scorecard-metrics)
• [How do we set realistic weekly goals without just guessing?](/qa/setting-scorecard-targets-without-historical-data)