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Ten Quantum Leaps to Build High-Performing Organizations

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January 13th, 2009

A Balanced Scorecard for Public Agencies

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public agency scorecard

I work with a lot of public agencies and their Boards of Directors. Typically, my focus is on helping these Board develop a high-level scorecard that the Board can rely on for measuring the organization’s performance. This, in turn, will accelerate the organization to attain higher levels of performance.

The important thing about the scorecard is that it has to be balanced. It has to balance all the aspects of what is essential to the organization’s success – from financial sustainability to customer satisfaction, from product reliability to ethical integrity.

The organization’s core values are the things that, if the organization could speak for itself, it would say are most important to it. Each of them can be measured. A balanced scorecard will look at 8-10 different categories of core values and assign metrics and targets to each of them. A tool on our website called Developing Core Values explains this in detail.

An unbalanced scorecard, in contrast, will have too many metrics. They won’t be focused on outcomes, but rather on outputs. Too many of them will fall into one category, like financial. Other core values, like integrity or environmental stewardship, may be neglected.

Read Next Blog Article: “Corporate Leadership Development Program“

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August 8th, 2008

Roles and Goals | Corporate Leadership Development Program


corporate leadership development program

There are two conversations that leaders assume they can have once, and then be done with – at least or a while. Those are conversations about roles and goals. Many leaders assume they can talk about them once a year or so, and that’s enough. Or so they assume.

It’s my experience, however, that conversations about roles and goals need to occur all the time. As the leader, you may think you’re repeating yourself. Yet the people hearing your views about roles and goals are gaining important new information and insights each time.  Why? First of all, roles and goals often change, so people are often operating on old information. Second, by emphasizing roles and goals, leaders provide people the confidence that someone has the big picture in mind and is managing it.

Third, and most important, most of the conflicts inside an organization are about roles and goals. Who’s the final decision maker on this program or project? How are we measuring success? Talking about roles and goals gives people a forum to surface those conflicts and resolve them. Remember, communication breaks down because the appropriate conversations are not taking place. It’s the leader’s responsibility to know what conversations are essential – and to keep having them.

See our “Executive Leadership Development Program“

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Posted in Leadership Development, Performance Management | Comments