Tips for Setting Scorecard Measurables [Agreements vs. Expectations]

Your Scorecard will always be a work in progress, and that’s a good thing! Digging deeper to learn where you can push forward or where you need to pull back is a sign that you care about your team. And it all starts with creating a Scorecard that illuminates strengths and weaknesses, providing an avenue to implement changes or address issues. 

Tips for Setting Key Performance Indicators in Your Scorecards

When you have multiple people in one Seat on your Org chart, it becomes even more important to set clear agreements around Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to manage their performance.

Ninety’s Founder and CEO, Mark Abbott, shares advice he provides to clients when establishing best practices for KPIs and performance tracking:

• Everyone in the Seat must have the same KPIs.
• The leader and the team member need to set and agree on target(s) below which they both know there is an issue. Essentially, set the bottom line regarding what is acceptable each week.
• Then, when the numbers aren’t hit, add them to the Issues list.
• All team members in the Seat have the same KPI but individual targets.

By following these tips for building out your Scorecard, you can track performance by an individual to monitor growth or provide support and training if a KPI lands on the Issues list more than once.

The key to success here is establishing your KPI targets as agreements, not expectations. When there is an agreement in place, and it's not lived up to, it’s time to talk about what happened and implement plans for change and improvement.

These agreements versus expectations offer more than just an opportunity to get the Scorecard right; they also establish an open line of communication, transparency, and trust between the leader and team member.

When people have agreements, they commit themselves and the other party to live up to what they promised. This small difference in your leadership approach can hugely impact buy-in, sense of empowerment, and ownership for your people. All of that directly translates to how hard your people work and how hard they want to work.

Try it out with your KPIs in Ninety, and see where else you can apply the concept. Start your free 30-day trial of Ninety!