A leadership scorecard should not be a smaller version of every departmental dashboard.
It should answer one question:
What does leadership need to notice this week before it becomes a bigger problem?
For a 20-to-50-person company, I would usually start with 5 to 15 measures, give each one a single owner, review them weekly, and delete anything that never changes a decision.
The 12 measures below are a practical starter set. The thresholds are examples, not universal benchmarks.
- Qualified Pipeline Created
Function: Sales
Owner: Sales Lead
This measures how much genuinely qualified future opportunity entered the pipeline.
The important word is qualified.
Counting every form submission or email enquiry can make the number look healthy while actual buying intent is weak.
The question is:
Are we creating enough future opportunity?
An example trigger:
RED if qualified pipeline stays
below the expected range for 2 weeks.
If there is no baseline yet, do not invent one. Collect four weeks first.
- Discovery Conversations Completed
Function: Sales
Owner: Sales Lead
A booked meeting is not the same as a useful sales conversation.
I prefer completed discovery conversations because they show whether qualified interest is actually progressing.
The question is:
Are prospects reaching real conversations?
Example trigger:
RED if completed discovery calls
fall for 2 consecutive weeks.
If enquiries remain stable but discovery falls, check scheduling, response time, qualification, and ownership.
- Proposals With a Dated Next Step
Function: Sales
Owner: Commercial Lead
A pipeline can look impressive while half the proposals have no defined next action.
I would rather see fewer proposals with real decision dates than a large pile of “open” opportunities.
The question is:
Is the pipeline moving toward decisions?
Example trigger:
RED if too many active proposals
have no agreed next date.
This is often more useful than simply counting proposal value.
- Commitments Delivered On Time
Function: Delivery
Owner: Delivery Lead
Busy teams can still be unreliable teams.
This measure tracks whether meaningful customer, product, or operational commitments were completed when promised.
The question is:
Are we keeping delivery promises?
Example trigger:
RED if on-time delivery stays
below the agreed range for 2 weeks.
Do not silently move due dates and then report everything as on time.
That destroys the usefulness of the measure.
- Blocked Work
Function: Delivery
Owner: Operations Lead
Blocked work is useful because it exposes friction.
A blocker could be:
approval
dependency
customer input
technical decision
founder decision
unclear ownership
The question is:
Where is important work unable to move?
Example trigger:
RED if blocked items increase
week over week.
A rising blocker count often tells you more about the operating system than a productivity metric.
- Rework Opened
Function: Delivery
Owner: QA or Operations Lead
Rework means the team thought something was done and then had to revisit it.
That can point to:
unclear requirements
missed review
quality defects
scope confusion
handoff failures
The question is:
Are we repeating work we already considered finished?
Example trigger:
RED if rework rises
for 2 consecutive weeks.
I would track the trend before setting a hard target.
- Cash Position
Function: Finance
Owner: Finance Lead
Leadership needs one shared view of immediate financial room.
The exact definition depends on the business.
It might be:
available cash
short-term liquidity
cash coverage
operating buffer
The question is:
Can we cover near-term commitments?
Example trigger:
RED if cash falls below
the agreed operating buffer.
The buffer should be company-specific.
Do not copy someone else's benchmark.
- Overdue Receivables
Function: Finance
Owner: Finance Lead
Revenue is not useful if the cash does not arrive.
This measure should focus on receivables that now require action.
The question is:
Is cash getting stuck with customers?
Example trigger:
RED if overdue receivables exceed
the agreed value or percentage.
The useful follow-up is always:
Which balance?
Who owns the follow-up?
By when?
Without that, it is just reporting.
- Completed Work Not Invoiced
Function: Finance
Owner: Finance Lead
A company can deliver successfully and still create unnecessary cash pressure because billing is delayed.
Typical reasons include:
missing acceptance
purchase order delays
internal approval
paperwork
unclear ownership
The question is:
Are we converting completed work into billing?
Example trigger:
RED if completed billable work waits
beyond the agreed billing window.
Finance may own the metric even when another team owns the blocker.
- Critical Roles Open
Function: People
Owner: People Lead
I would not put every vacancy on the leadership scorecard.
Only roles where the absence is beginning to constrain execution.
The question is:
Is missing capacity affecting delivery?
Example trigger:
RED if a business-critical role
stays open beyond the agreed window.
That turns hiring from a general HR update into an operating issue.
- Manager Check-Ins Completed
Function: People
Owner: People Lead
This measure needs careful interpretation.
A completed one-to-one does not prove good management.
But consistently missed check-ins can signal overloaded managers, weak operating discipline, or communication problems.
The question is:
Are managers maintaining the expected people rhythm?
Example trigger:
RED if completion falls below
the agreed weekly range.
Treat this as a process signal, not a performance verdict.
- Customer Issues Open More Than 7 Days
Function: Customers
Owner: Customer or Service Lead
Leadership does not need every support ticket.
It does need visibility into unresolved issues that have exceeded the expected response or resolution window.
The question is:
Are customer problems accumulating?
Example trigger:
RED if aged issues rise
or exceed the agreed limit.
The seven-day window is only an example.
A critical issue may need resolution in hours. A lower-priority request may reasonably take longer.
Typical / Indicative Leadership Attention
- Pipeline ██████░░░░ Medium
- Discovery █████░░░░░ Medium
- Proposals ██████░░░░ Medium
- Delivery █████████░ High
- Blocked work ████████░░ High
- Rework ███████░░░ Medium
- Cash position ██████████ High
- Receivables █████████░ High
- Unbilled work ████████░░ High
- Open roles ██████░░░░ Medium
- Check-ins █████░░░░░ Medium
- Customer issues████████░░ High
My rough read only. The right weighting depends on the business model, current risks, and priorities.
Leading vs Lagging Measures
A scorecard built only from outcomes arrives too late.
Revenue, profit, churn, and cash matter, but most are lagging indicators.
I also want signals leadership can still influence.
Examples:
Leading:
- qualified pipeline
- blocked work
- manager check-ins
Lagging:
- revenue
- missed delivery
- churn
- cash
A useful scorecard mixes both.
Leading measures tell you what might happen.
Lagging measures tell you whether your earlier assumptions were right.
No Baseline? Measure First
A common mistake is choosing a metric and immediately asking:
What should green be?
Sometimes the honest answer is: we do not know yet.
If a measure is new, collect four weeks of consistent data first.
Keep the definition stable.
Then look for:
normal range
recurring lows
unexpected spikes
seasonality
obvious relationships
Only then set an initial threshold.
A red flag should mean:
This moved far enough that leadership should understand why.
It should not mean automatic failure.
What I Would Delete
A scorecard becomes better when you remove weak metrics.
I would delete a measure if:
[ ] nobody changes behavior because of it
[ ] nobody can explain how it is calculated
[ ] the definition changes every week
[ ] it duplicates another metric
[ ] leadership never discusses it
[ ] it belongs in a department dashboard
[ ] it looks impressive but answers no question
My test is simple:
If this turns red next Monday, what conversation will we have?
If nobody knows, I question why the metric is there.
Practical Scorecard Checklist
Before adding a measure:
[ ] Does it answer one clear question?
[ ] Is the definition stable?
[ ] Does one person own it?
[ ] Is it reviewed weekly?
[ ] Does movement trigger action?
[ ] Is it leading, lagging, or intentionally both?
Before setting a threshold:
[ ] Collect 4 weeks of data
[ ] Keep the counting rule fixed
[ ] Review the normal range
[ ] Define what deserves discussion
[ ] Mark thresholds as examples until validated
During the weekly meeting:
What changed?
Why?
Who owns the response?
What happens next?
When should the number recover?
That is the operating value of a scorecard.
Not the chart.
Not the dashboard.
The conversation it creates.
How Consult With Krishna Helps With Leadership Scorecards
Consult With Krishna is our own service, and we help leadership teams turn scattered reports into a smaller weekly operating view with clear definitions, owners, and decision triggers. The goal is to build a scorecard that supports accountability and useful conversations rather than another reporting layer.
Five trusted numbers beat fifty ignored ones.
I wrote the fuller version here: A Starter Scorecard for Leadership Teams of 20 to 50 People.
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