Achieving a significant goal, whether for a business or in one’s personal life, often presents a familiar challenge. While setting an ambitious target is straightforward, tracking progress in a way that impacts the outcome is more difficult. The challenge lies not in defining the destination, but in navigating the journey. Understanding how to measure what matters can be the difference between falling short and celebrating success.
Defining a Lead Measure
A lead measure is a metric that tracks the most impactful activities that drive toward a goal. Its two defining characteristics are that it is predictive of success and, importantly, it is something an individual or team can directly influence. Think of it as focusing on the behaviors that will get you to the desired result, rather than staring at the result itself. These measures are fundamentally proactive, allowing for real-time adjustments and a sense of control over the process.
The concept was notably popularized in the book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling. The authors emphasize that while many leaders are adept at tracking outcomes, the most effective ones focus their teams on the handful of actions that produce those outcomes. For instance, if a company’s goal is to increase overall sales, a lead measure would be the number of qualified product demonstrations given to new prospects each week. This is an activity the sales team can directly control day-to-day, and it reliably predicts future sales.
Understanding the Lag Measure
In contrast, a lag measure tracks the success of your goal, representing the ultimate outcome. The term “lag” is used because there is a time delay between actions and results. By the time you see the data, the performance that drove it is in the past.
These outcome-based metrics are what most people naturally focus on when setting goals. Following the previous example, if the lead measure is the number of product demonstrations, the corresponding lag measure is the final revenue figure at the end of the quarter. While this number is certainly important, it is not directly influenceable in the moment. You cannot simply will a revenue number to increase; it is the result of many preceding actions.
Lag measures are necessary for confirming success and setting a clear direction. They represent the target on the horizon. The limitation of focusing solely on them is that they provide no insight into what behaviors need to change to improve performance. They are historical data that tells a story of past events rather than guiding present actions.
The Relationship Between Lead and Lag Measures
The power of these metrics is unlocked when they are used together. Lead measures are designed to drive the results of lag measures, creating an actionable path toward a goal. One metric tells you where you want to go, and the other tells you how to make progress on the journey.
This relationship can be seen in various contexts. In a business setting, a company might have a lag measure of increasing its customer satisfaction score from 80% to 90%. While the team cannot directly control this score, they can control their actions. A corresponding lead measure could be the number of proactive customer support check-ins made each week, an activity that is predictive of higher satisfaction and is entirely within the team’s control.
The same principle applies to personal goals. For a health-related objective, the lag measure might be to lose 10 pounds in three months. The lead measures that drive this outcome could be the number of workouts completed per week or maintaining a daily calorie intake below a specific threshold. These are activities that can be tracked and managed, and consistently hitting them makes achieving the weight loss goal far more likely.
Even in personal development, this framework provides structure. If the lag measure is to become fluent in a new language, simply hoping for fluency is not a strategy. An effective lead measure would be tracking the number of hours spent actively practicing that language each week. By focusing on consistently hitting a target of, for instance, five hours of practice weekly, the individual gains direct leverage over their long-term goal of fluency.
Benefits of Focusing on Lead Measures
Adopting a focus on lead measures brings several distinct advantages. It changes how individuals and teams approach their work by shifting their perspective from reactive to proactive. This creates a more empowered environment where people feel a direct connection between their daily efforts and the larger objective. This approach fosters a sense of control, as team members are judged on activities they can manage.
This method also provides immediate feedback, which is a powerful motivator. Instead of waiting for a quarterly review to know if they are succeeding, individuals can see their performance on the lead measure on a weekly or even daily basis. This creates a “winnable game,” where the team can see if they are on track and celebrate small victories along the way. This consistent feedback loop helps maintain momentum and makes the long-term goal feel less daunting.
A culture built around lead measures is one of continuous improvement. When a team sees that hitting their lead measure isn’t moving the lag measure as predicted, it sparks a conversation about strategy, not just effort. It encourages them to analyze whether they have chosen the right high-leverage activity. This analytical and adaptive approach is far more productive than simply demanding better results without providing a clear path to achieve them.
How to Create Effective Lead Measures
Developing effective lead measures begins with clarity on the lag measure. You must first define the specific, measurable outcome you want to achieve, such as “increase market share from 15% to 18% by the end of the year.” Once this goal is established, the next step is to brainstorm potential activities that could influence this outcome.
After brainstorming, filter the list of potential activities by asking two questions. First, is the activity predictive of achieving the lag measure? There should be a logical reason to believe that performing this activity will lead to the desired result. Second, can the team directly influence this activity? The measure must track something they can control.
Once an activity passes both tests, it should be framed as a simple, trackable metric. An effective lead measure is easy to understand and monitor, such as “number of new customer outreach calls per week” or “percentage of projects completed on time.” A common pitfall is choosing a lead measure that is not truly influenceable, which leads to frustration. Another mistake is selecting a measure that is not predictive of the lag measure, resulting in wasted effort on activities that do not move the needle.