After working with hundreds of landscape firms, we’ve identified five recurring mistakes in how financial scorecards are being used.

This is a timely topic, because I recently visited with Schill Grounds Management and saw how they employ their scorecard on a weekly basis. They have a brilliant approach which we will show you, more on that later.

(Schill is the host of our Summer Growth Summit.)

Five Ways to Greatly Improve Your Scorecard Results.

Which ones apply to you?

1. Set More Than One Metric Per Position

I urge you to avoid the trend of assigning just one KPI (key performance indicator) per position. I say this because business (and life in general) is much more complex than that.

Oversimplifying may seem easier for your people, but it’s not more effective.

You will enjoy more success when your team is able to juggle their priorities and manage multiple metrics at one time.

They will become more effective – and so will your company – by educating them on what’s important.

Note: make sure to include ‘leading’ indicators as well as the normal ‘lagging’ financial indicators. This will help you prevent problems before they arise.

2. Take Ample Time to Dig In

Don’t just go through the motions when reviewing your scorecard. Don’t just say “we will tackle that problem later.”

If you see bad numbers show up, especially critical ones, address them on the spot; take the time to dig in.

3. Don’t Be Afraid to Set Ambitious Goals

Don’t let mediocrity define your expectations.

For example, if your estimate-to-actual variance is consistently 10% off, don’t settle for an incremental goal of reducing it to 5%.

If the real target should be 0% variance “on average” then aim for that, or even aim for a negative variance.

Leadership requires sticking your neck out for the right reasons.

4. Focus on Meaningful Variances

Not all variances are equally important.

Start with metrics that show discrepancies greater than 5%. Once you’ve addressed the major issues, then move on to the smaller variances.

Also, pay attention to positive variances over 5%. Understanding why you’re exceeding expectations is just as crucial as knowing why you’re falling short.

5. Always Have Year-to-Date (YTD) Goals

Without YTD goals to guide you, it’s hard to interpret your current results.

How are we doing compared to our goal?

Some companies use “% of the year-end goal” as a KPI. (e.g. we sold 60% of our annual sales goal). But that doesn’t provide enough useful data.

You need an actual YTD goal to make sense of your YTD results.

I like looking at results from 3 different perspectives:

• YTD goals vs actuals
• Monthly goals vs actuals
• Rolling Budget (showing how we will end the year if we keep on our current pace).

Your Challenge: Empowering Your Team So They Can Make Better Decisions.

There is more than one way to set up a scorecard – but the best ways are comprehensive in nature, with responsibility for numbers delegated out to your team.

If your team is not killing it, its possible your “meeting rhythm” and “financial education” is to blame.

With that in mind, I am excited for our visit to Schill Grounds Management. They excel at:

• educating their leaders, managers and crew leaders to understand theirs numbers.
• holding everyone accountable every week.

While many companies rely on the EOS model for running meetings, Schill has developed its own “Schill Operating System” to drive weekly success across all its branches.

You’ll learn more about their proven operating system at our Summer Growth Summit. (Super early bird ends April 24. Sign up here.)

Regards, Jeffrey Scott!