Our leadership team members have defined their department scorecards, but they are resisting setting individual weekly measurables for themselves, claiming their roles are too strategic for simple numbers. How do we get our highly-paid executives to define and own their individual weekly metrics?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

It is a common misconception among senior executives that their strategic responsibilities cannot be reduced to a weekly number. Highly-paid leaders often argue that their work is too long-term or qualitative for a weekly scorecard, but this attitude undermines the Accountability Chart and damages your company culture.

Every seat in your organization, including the executive team, must have one to three weekly measurables that they GWC™, meaning they get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it. Even the most strategic roles have weekly outputs that indicate whether they are moving their department forward.

To help your executives define their weekly metrics, focus on their primary accountability. For example, consider these executive measurables:
- For a marketing director, track the number of marketing-qualified leads generated this week.
- For a sales director, track the total value of new contracts signed or sales calls completed.
- For an operations director, track the percentage of weekly service level agreements met.
- For a finance director, track weekly cash collections versus outstanding accounts receivable.

When your executives own and report their own weekly numbers, it establishes a culture of high performance and transparency throughout the entire company. If your senior leaders refuse to be measured, your frontline staff will quickly reject their own scorecards, destroying your data component.