With many new clients and new Implementers added to our Implementer team lately there have been a lot of new scorecards created out there which is what prompts this urgent message.
In addition to being a temperature gauge, your Scorecard should be driving results. (If you're not familiar with the Scorecard template, click here to download it.) Of all the EOS tools, the Scorecard seems to be the one that gets the most extreme reaction. People either love it or just don't get it, or at least struggle with it a bit.
One of my favorite reactions I get occasionally is when clients tell me it's not working. Upon further digging, I realize it's not their Scorecard that's not working-it's the team that isn't working.
With this issue, I've racked my brain and come to a couple of conclusions as to why some leadership teams have a hard time with the Scorecard and how to get the most out of it. Here are five disciplines to help you get the most out of it:
#1: Make sure that you have 5 to 15 numbers that are the most important activity-based numbers that predict future results. If you're not sure how to get to an activity-based number, just simply start with one of the future results you're looking for and work it backwards by asking what the step is that occurs just before this result. I had one particular client work it all the way backward fifteen steps until finding the perfect activity-based number to show future results.
#2: Make sure only one leadership team member owns hitting the number every week.
#3: Make sure there is a goal for each number.
#4: When the goal isn't met, look into the eyes of the person who owns it and ask, "What are you going to do to get the number back on track for next week's Scorecard?"
#5: If the number continues to not be hit, you have one of three problems: You're not holding your people accountable, the wrong person is accountable, or your goal is unrealistic.
You have two choices with your Scorecard. The first is to let it tell you what happened. The second is to use it to make things happen. You choose. If I'm not being clear, please choose number two.
Pick one number that's off-track this week and drill down on it. Ask why five times to get to the root of why it's off, or pick the most important number and drive and focus on it for one month and see what happens.
I hope this helps. Thanks for all of your support. Traction has now sold almost 15,000 copies and we have over 20 EOS Implementers around the country. Let me know if we can help in any way.
Stay focused,
Gino
