Are You Keeping Score?

When it comes to tracking how a business is doing, many business coaches or EOS Implementers™ find that business owners are relying on things like financial reports and other types of forecasting data as a way to monitor the pulse of the company. While tracking financial data is important, it doesn’t give you a full 360° view into how the business is doing. What you really need is consistent access to measurables that show you how you are doing right now, allowing you to correct your course and make changes over time to prevent or minimize errors.

Leadership teams that use of scorecards in their business find that they have access to more meaningful data. Financial statements such as P&L’s (profit and loss statements) may tell you the score at one moment in time, but by then, it’s too late to change course to prevent mistakes. With scorecards that provide reliable, meaningful data, leadership teams can quickly access where they are at and can make changes that will improve their future progress.

Every company’s Scorecard looks different, and should be unique to you and your organization. Following these recommended steps is an easy way to start implementing scorecards in your organization:

1. Spend time with your leadership team to determine which measurables should be tracked on a weekly basis in order to give you a reliable pulse on the business. Typical measurables include items like weekly revenue, cash balances, weekly sales activity, customer satisfaction/problems, accounts receivable and payable, and client project or production status etc.
2. Next, determine who is accountable for each measurable. This is typically the person who is responsible for that particular function within the business.
3. Enter what the expected weekly goal is for each measurable in the scorecard. These should directly line up with your one-year plan.
4. Prepare for the next week’s scorecard by entering the date in the next blank column.
5. Decide who is accountable for collecting the numbers and update the scorecard each week for the leadership team to review.
6. Use it! Review your Scorecard every week to ensure that you are staying on track for your vision.