Understanding Leading and Lagging Indicators

You don't wait until you're dehydrated to drink water... At least - you shouldn't. By the time that headache hits or your energy crashes, it's already too late. That's a lagging indicator - the signal that something has already gone wrong. We live it in some form almost everyday, right? • Your pants don't tighten *before the late-night Utz Salt & Vinegar and pint of Cherry Garcia [wait, is it just me?] • Burnout doesn't knock *before the 60-hour weeks catch up to you. •Anxiety doesn't show up *before the boundary gets crossed - So what if we got better at paying attention to the early signs? • A dry throat. • A consistently full calendar. • A gut check. These are leading indicators - subtle clues that change is needed *before the consequences hit. And when we act on them early, we can prevent damage instead of managing it. The same thinking applies across business: • In sales, a drop in pipeline coverage isn't the problem — it's a sign. [shout out to Kevin "KD" Dorsey's Issue Diagnosis framework] • In customer success, decreased product usage precedes churn. • In people leadership, disengagement often shows up before attrition. • In finance and accounting, time-consuming manual work today creates risk and rework later. When you build around lagging indicators, you get good at explaining what went wrong. When you build around leading indicators, you get good at preventing it. Blockbuster [oh the nostalgia] didn't collapse overnight. The drop in foot traffic, customer churn, shifting content consumption preferences - leading indicators that were there - vigorously waving red flags. But leadership kept it moving. Focused on lagging indicators like revenue, store count, market share - until those collapsed too. That's the lesson - in life, leadership, or reporting - By the time you're fixing the problem, you're already living with its consequences. Leading teams don't just monitor results. They're designing for foresight. They're tracking the right signals. They're creating room to respond *before the stakes get high. That's the shift from lagging to leading. From reaction to intention. From damage control to proactive control. Just like all good shifts - it starts small. First, we notice. Then, we act sooner. What early signals are you learning to trust - before the consequences force your hand?

"The numbers that almost Killed us" Tuesday morning. A $40M company's board meeting. Revenue charts pointing up. Margins look solid. Customer acquisition costs are stable. 'We're crushing it,' the CEO announced proudly. Friday afternoon. Their biggest client left. Two VPs resigned. And nobody saw it coming. This isn't fiction. This was a client's company last year. They were tracking every metric in the book - except the ones that mattered. Their painful lesson about metrics: The most dangerous numbers are the ones that make you feel safe. Consider these fallen giants: ✅ Blockbuster had great revenue numbers right until Netflix won ✅ Nokia dominated market share until the iPhone launched ✅ Circuit City's margins looked solid before their collapse Like them, this company was tracking lagging indicators - measurements of what already happened. They missed the leading indicators - signals of what's about to happen. The Metrics That Actually Matter: 1) The Whispers ✅ Employee referral rates dropping ✅ Time to fill key positions increasing ✅ Internal promotion rates falling 2) The Canaries ✅ Customer contact frequency changes ✅ Support ticket sentiment shifts ✅ Payment timing variations 3) The Undercurrents ✅ Process exception rates ✅ Decision cycle lengths ✅ Cross-department collaboration scores Today, that same CEO has a different approach. Revenue still matters, but it's not the only story. His team tracks the quiet signals that precede problems: ✅ Meeting attendance patterns ✅ Email response times ✅ Customer engagement depth Team collaboration metrics The result? They're not just monitoring performance. They're predicting it. Your KPIs tell you where you've been. These metrics tell you where you're going. What keeps you up at night might not show up in your dashboard, but it's trying to tell you something. Are you listening? #Leadership #BusinessStrategy #Growth

𝗡𝗥𝗥 𝗶𝘀 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗵𝘆𝗽𝗲𝗱: Here’s What We Should Really Focus On NRR (Net Revenue Retention) is often viewed as the metric for success. But here’s the truth: 𝗡𝗥𝗥 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗲𝗹𝗹𝘀 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆. The reality? 𝗡𝗥𝗥 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗯𝗲 𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. You might have strong NRR, but still miss critical signs that your business isn’t as healthy as it seems. NRR tracks revenue retention and upsells, but it 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀𝗻’𝘁 show if you’re building long-term value or making your product truly indispensable. So, 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗪𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲? The secret to defining Customer Success KPIs is simple: Track both leading and lagging indicators. 𝗪𝗵𝘆? Because this removes ambiguity and helps you tell the complete story of your customers’ journey. ------ Here’s the framework: 1️⃣ 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 → These metrics predict future success and focus on early signs of value creation and customer engagement. Examples: - 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗱𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 (Are customers actively using your key features?) - 𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (How quickly do new users reach their first success milestone?) - 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 (𝗖𝗦𝗤𝗟) (How many successful customers are converting into new leads?) - Usage Frequency (How often are customers engaging with your platform?) These help you identify trends early and take proactive action to ensure success. 2️⃣ 𝗟𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 → These measure outcomes that have already occurred. They tell you how well you’ve performed over time and show long-term customer health. Examples: - 𝗚𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 (𝗚𝗥𝗥) (How much revenue are you retaining before upsells?) - 𝗨𝗽𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲𝘀 (How much additional revenue are you generating through existing customers?) - 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 (𝗖𝗟𝗧𝗩) (How much revenue does each customer generate over their relationship with your company?) While lagging indicators help you evaluate past performance, 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻, they can be misleading. You need both to get the full picture. So. measure what drives success (leading indicators) AND what proves success (lagging indicators). Together, they tell the 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 of your customers' journey. If your customers aren’t engaged or adopting your solution, high retention won’t last. NRR is important, but let’s shift the focus to what drives it: 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. That’s the true foundation for 𝘀𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘁𝗵 and 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. 𝗣.𝗦. If you don't feel super confident about your Customer Success KPIs. you're not alone. There's a framework and tools to help you figure out which KPIs are appropriate for your business and customer engagement model, so you can gain better insights and prove the value of your CS team more effectively. #CustomerSuccess

𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗠𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀 A plant manager once told me, “𝗪𝗲 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽, 𝗢𝗘𝗘, 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆. 𝗜𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗽, 𝘄𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺.” I asked, “𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗵𝗼𝘄?” He hesitated. “𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹... 𝘄𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗲. 𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.” That’s the problem, you can’t 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗮 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗯𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. That’s like driving while staring in the rearview mirror. 𝗟𝗮𝗴𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝗼𝗼 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗔𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 Most manufacturers track scrap, OEE, and delivery, but these only tell you 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝘆. 🔹 Scrap rate spikes, bad material or process issue? 🔹 OEE drops, machine breakdowns or slow changeovers? 🔹 Late deliveries, missing parts or downtime? By the time these numbers appear, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙞𝙨 𝙙𝙤𝙣𝙚. 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 Want better results? Focus on the 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲. ✅ First-pass yield (FPY) → 10% FPY improvement = 𝟯𝟬% 𝗹𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽 ✅ Standard work adherence → 𝟰𝟬% 𝗳𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 ✅ Preventive maintenance → 𝟭𝟬-𝟮𝟬% 𝗢𝗘𝗘 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝘀𝘁 ✅ Changeover time tracking → 𝟯𝟬% 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝘁𝗽𝘂𝘁 What do these have in common? They measure the 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 being done now, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁: 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 One company I worked with spent every KPI meeting debating scrap and OEE. Every week, a different reason. We flipped the focus: Track leading indicators. Go to the floor. Ask real questions. 🔹 Are operators 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬? 🔹 Are problem-solving 𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦? 🔹 Is preventive maintenance 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘥𝘰𝘯𝘦? Within six months: ✅ Scrap dropped 𝟮𝟱% ✅ OEE increased 𝟭𝟮% ✅ On-time delivery improved 𝟭𝟱% 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗻? 𝗡𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸. 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄. If your team spends more time 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 than improving the process, you’re already 𝘁𝗼𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲. Want better performance? 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗺𝗶𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿, focus on what’s ahead. What leading indicators have made the biggest difference for you? Let’s discuss. 👇 What leading indicators have made the biggest difference for you? Let’s discuss. #lean #manufacturing #leadership #kpi

Everyone wants the revenue to rise, market share to climb, and sales to surge. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: revenue is a lagging indicator. It only tells you what has already happened. If you’re measuring success purely by outcomes, you’re diagnosing too late, like treating a fever without asking what caused it. Behavior must change before any sales team can grow revenue or capture market share. And behavior doesn’t shift because you asked it to. It shifts when you identify the root cause of what’s holding it back. Is it a Skill issue? A Will issue? Or a Way issue? * Skill is about capability—do they know how to do it? * Will is about motivation—do they want to do it? * Way is about systems—are you enabling them to do it? If you don’t know which one is broken, no amount of incentives or training is going to fix it. It’s not guesswork. It’s a diagnosis. Once the root cause is clear, the part most organizations skip is defining both leading and lagging indicators. Here’s the difference: - Leading indicators are behaviors and activities that predict success. Examples include the number of quality discovery calls, the adoption of a new process, and the frequency of manager coaching. - Lagging indicators are the results that show up after those behaviors take root. Think: revenue growth, deal velocity, customer retention. If you’re only measuring revenue, you’re reacting. If you’re measuring behaviors, you’re leading. In other words: don’t wait for the numbers to tell you something went wrong. Observe the signals that show what’s going right—or what’s missing. You can’t scale what you don’t track, and you can’t track what you haven’t defined. So, where do you start? 1. Diagnose the root: skill, will, or way? 2. Define observable behaviors tied to success. 3. Establish qualitative and quantitative measures for those behaviors. 4. Reinforce, coach, and track—before you forecast. Sustainable growth isn’t magic. It’s a process, and the teams that treat behavior as the leading performance metric are the ones that stop chasing results and start creating them.

🚨 Are you tracking KPIs that drive behaviors or just collecting numbers? *** A follower requested that I share a post on leading and lagging indicators, so it is … *** In maintenance and reliability, we often obsess over metrics (to a fault, sometimes) - wrench time, PM compliance, MTBF, and failure rates. Here's the kicker: most of what we track are lagging indicators. 👉 Lagging indicators tell you what has already happened. It’s not unlike looking in a rear-view mirror. They measure outcomes: • Equipment Availability • Unplanned Downtime • Reactive vs. Planned Work Ratio • Maintenance Budget vs. Actuals • Schedule Breaker Hours or WOs These are important, but they don’t help you change the future. For real improvement, you need to pair them with leading indicators—metrics that predict performance and give you time to act. 🔹 Scheduled Hours vs. Available Labor Hours (Labor Utilization for Next Week) 🔹 % of Proactive Work as a % of the Total Work from PM/ PdM scheduled next week 🔹 PM Compliance These signal the health of your processes before equipment fails. Here’s the mindset shift: Lagging = Autopsy Leading = Diagnosis and Prevention 🔁 Dual Nature of Some Metrics But wait, Jeff, you used PM Compliance (% of preventive maintenance completed on time) as a leading indicator. Wouldn't that be lagging, since it reflects the work done in a prior week? As a leading indicator, it reflects the discipline and consistency of your work management process. If PM compliance starts slipping, you can reasonably predict that failures may increase later. → It’s leading because it tells you where future problems might arise. As a lagging indicator, it tells you whether you met last week’s or last month’s target. If you had poor compliance, it's already too late to prevent the failures that could result. → It’s lagging because it’s reporting past execution. My question for you: What’s one leading indicator you rely on—and how has it helped your site improve? #Maintenance #Reliability #KPIs #PlanningAndScheduling #AssetManagement #ReliabilityLeadership

“The scoreboard doesn’t lie. It doesn’t care how you feel—it only reflects how you’re performing.” — Bill Parcells Post #20: Implement Real-Time KPI Tracking In fast-moving markets, lagging indicators are a liability. They tell you what already happened—when it’s too late to change it. And yet, nearly every leader I work with has KPIs buried in reports, scattered across systems, or delayed by manual processes. The result? Poor visibility, slower response, and misaligned execution. But the real issue isn’t just access to data—it’s what you’re tracking. Most dashboards are loaded with lagging metrics: revenue, churn, EBITDA. Important, yes—but reactive. The unlock is identifying the leading indicators that predict those outcomes: + What inputs drive the output? + What behaviors or activities signal movement—before it hits the scoreboard? We helped one team rebuild their KPI engine around this concept. Instead of waiting for monthly revenue data, they tracked real-time lead flow, proposal activity, average sales cycle velocity, and product usage signals. This gave them a two-week head start on performance gaps—and helped allocate resources faster, with more precision. Here’s how to move from reactive to real-time: + Define the critical few metrics—6–10 that blend predictive and performance indicators. + Automate where possible—eliminate the latency that kills momentum. + Make it visible across functions—alignment starts with shared awareness. + Review weekly, act daily—don’t just monitor—respond. The goal isn’t more data. It’s better foresight. Because the best leaders don’t just report what happened—they lead by knowing what’s coming next. Next up: Post #21 – Strengthen Sales Enablement #CEOPlaybook #RealTimeKPIs #LeadingIndicators #PredictivePerformance #LeadershipInTurbulence

Imagine someone showing you a video of your commute home After you're already home. "Look at all that traffic you sat in!" "See that accident you could have avoided?" "That alternate route you missed?" Useless, right? That's turnover data. It's a picture of the past. It tells you what went wrong—after it's too late. But leading indicators? They're your Google Maps in real-time: → Showing traffic before you hit it → Suggesting better routes while you can still change → Warning about delays when there's time to adapt Smart leaders don't just measure outputs (turnover). They measure inputs: 1. Guiding Principles ↳ Are values lived or just laminated? ↳ Do decisions align with stated culture? 2. Leadership Effectiveness ↳ Do managers build or break trust? ↳ Is feedback a conversation or a monologue? 3. Resource Optimization ↳ Are tools enabling or frustrating? ↳ Does workload match capacity? 4. Process Health ↳ Do systems support or suffocate? ↳ Can people do their best work? 5. Communication Flow ↳ Is information clear or cluttered? ↳ Do people feel heard or ignored? Stop watching videos of crashes. Start checking your GPS. Because by the time turnover shows up in your data, Your best people are already gone. _______ 👋 Hi, I’m Sharon Grossman! I help organizations reduce turnover. ♻️ Repost to support your network. 🔔 Follow me for leadership, burnout, and retention strategies

If you’ve ever been the recipient of a late night email from leadership, worried about some new ad from the competition, this one is for you… Just because your competition has a new ad doesn’t mean they’re winning. The real question isn’t “What are they doing?” but “How well is it working?”  To figure that out, we need to shift from looking at leading indicators like in-market creative, to lagging indicators like IPEDs and 990s… What Can 990s Tell Us? Nonprofit colleges must file a 990 form with the IRS, revealing crucial information like revenue, expenses, assets, and profitability.  These reports provide a clear picture of how well an institution is performing—beyond the surface-level marketing. Tools like ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer and Deloitte’s DataUSA offer insights into a competitor’s 990 data, as well as IPEDs data, including tuition trends, enrollment, and retention rates.  With this, we can assess if a competitor’s flashy marketing is backed by real success or just masking financial issues. Here’s One Recent Example: A competitor seemed “everywhere” with ads, sparking concern among a client. But their 990 showed a -10% loss in 2021 and -5% loss in 2022. Despite tapping into their endowment to boost marketing, their enrollments remained flat, signaling financial struggles beneath the surface. So What Happened? The conversation with leadership quickly shifted from “How do we compete with them?” to “Should we be worried for them?” They were burning millions just to stay afloat, with no real growth, highlighting that sometimes, the loudest competitor may actually be the weakest. This isn’t to say we shouldn’t track front-of-house competitor activity, but rather just to highlight that before we react too quickly, we should slow down to understand how our competitor’s business is actually performing.  So the next time you get an email from leadership worried about a competitor’s visibility, dig into their actual performance first. It may just surface the insights you need to keep folks focused on what you’re up to, rather than chasing a competitor that may be worse off than you think.

Want to know the most devastating mistake sales leaders make? It's not failing to hit quota. It's being surprised by the failure. Here's the hard truth: If you're surprised by your quarter's results, you're measuring the wrong metrics. Focusing only on results—revenue, pipeline, conversion —is like steering a ship while watching the wake behind it. Results are lagging indicators. They show what’s already happened but don’t offer any actionable insights for future improvement. If you want better outcomes, shift the focus to leading metrics—the inputs that actually drive results. Try this to take charge of your sales strategy instead: 1. Pick one leading metric. Here are a few - % of active opportunities that have at least one C-level or executive sponsor actively engaged - Pipeline velocity in critical stages - Discovery → Proposal, Proposal -> Negotiations - Average number of engaged stakeholders in every opportunity - Proof of Concept (PoC) Success Rate 2. Get your team on the same page. Make this metric the centerpiece of your strategy for a full quarter, ensuring everyone works toward the same goal. 3. Keep progress visible. Set up regular check-ins and accountability to stay aligned and maintain momentum. Why does this matter? Clarity and purpose help sales teams deliver real results—whether it’s engaging more executive buyers or ensuring deals progress through critical stages faster. Leadership goes beyond reacting to results. It involves creating systems where success becomes inevitable. Leading Indicators > Lagging Indicators every single day