Our leaders are struggling to transition from looking at historical financial reports to using forward-looking, real-time activity metrics. How do we align our leaders to manage their departments using a weekly Scorecard?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Your leaders are struggling to adopt a weekly Scorecard because they are comfortable looking backward at historical financials rather than looking forward at activity based metrics. To change this mindset, you must educate them on the difference between lagging indicators and leading indicators. Explain that waiting for monthly financials to manage the business is like driving a car by only looking in the rearview mirror. To build your Scorecard, work with each department head to identify three to five weekly activity metrics that directly predict their future success. For example, instead of tracking closed deals, track the number of new discovery calls scheduled. Once you have defined these metrics, integrate them directly into your weekly Level 10 Meeting™. Every leader must take personal ownership of their numbers. When a metric goes red, do not use it to punish the leader. Instead, drop the red metric down to the Issues List and use the IDS® process to solve the root cause. This shifts the culture from fear to objective accountability. When your leadership team runs the company using real time data, you build a predictable, self sustaining business that is highly attractive to future buyers.