Your Leadership Dashboard

Written By Rochelle Ginsburg

How do you know what’s happening in your business?

The answers usually sound something like this:

  • "I check my email."

  • "I ask my assistant."

  • "I look at the bank account."

  • "I open the CRM."

  • "I see if anyone Slacked me."

None of those are wrong. The problem is that they require you to go looking for information.

A leadership dashboard brings the important information to you.

Not everything: Just the information that helps you make better decisions.

What belongs on a leadership dashboard?

Technology companies, nonprofits, healthcare practices, marketing agencies and service companies all need different information.

Instead of asking what metrics should be on it, ask:

"What decisions do I make repeatedly?"

Then work backwards.

For example...

If you spend time deciding what to work on...

Show:

  • Projects at risk

  • Deadlines this week

  • Items waiting for your decision

If you spend time checking sales...

Show:

  • Pipeline value

  • New leads

  • Proposals awaiting response

  • Revenue vs. goal

If you spend time checking on the team...

Show:

  • Team members blocked

  • Tasks waiting on you

  • Major wins

  • Upcoming deadlines

If you spend time answering customer questions...

Show:

  • Follow-ups due

  • Support issues

  • Client satisfaction

  • Renewals coming up

Notice the pattern? The dashboard isn't organized around departments.

It's organized around leadership decisions.

Start with paper, not software.

One mistake I see is spending weeks choosing a dashboard platform before deciding what should be on it.

Flip that around.

Grab a blank sheet of paper. Write this question at the top:

If I could only see ten things every morning, what would help me lead better today?

Those ten things become your dashboard. Then you can decide whether to build it in Excel, Notion, Airtable, Monday, HubSpot, Salesforce, ClickUp—or have AI help design it for you.

The software comes second.

The thinking comes first.

Try This

Take ten minutes this week and write your list of ten.

Then ask yourself one more question:

What decision will each one help me make?

If a metric doesn't lead to a decision, it probably doesn't belong on your dashboard.

Sample dashboard a nonprofit leader might use

Sample dashboard a technology business owner might use

Rochelle Ginsburg
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