Destination Set, Map in Hand: Why Hybrid Goal-Setting Drives Execution
November 25, 2025
In the fast-paced world of business execution, one of the most powerful shifts a leadership team can make is moving from a rigid, top-down model of goal-setting to a hybrid model. This is where strategic clarity meets team-driven action. This approach fosters accountability, innovation, and engagement across the organization. It is akin to giving a driver the destination, but allowing them to choose the route to get there.
Imagine a leadership team setting the company's destination: a growth target, a product launch, or a customer experience transformation. It's essential that everyone in the organization knows exactly where the company is headed. But just like telling a driver their destination doesn't dictate their every turn, leadership doesn't need to (and shouldn't) define every step of the journey. A hybrid approach empowers the team to choose the most effective route and equips them to course-correct in real time.
Top-Down Clarity: Setting Strategic Priorities
At the heart of a good business performance platform is the idea that companies must define a small number of clear, strategic priorities. These are the "Main Things" that align resources and attention across the company. But here's where many teams falter: they set too many goals.
In my experience, the most common execution mistake is trying to focus on too much at once. For senior leadership, no more than 3 priorities is ideal. For departments and frontline teams, 1–2 is more than enough. When everything is a priority, nothing is.
Once leadership defines these high-level priorities, the focus shifts to execution, and that's where the hybrid model truly shines.
Bottom-Up Alignment: Engaging Teams to Own the Path
Rather than cascading strategic goals in a command-and-control fashion, the hybrid approach encourages alignment without micromanagement. Teams are invited to ask, "Within our scope of responsibility, how can we contribute to these company-wide priorities?"
This invites creativity, autonomy, and buy-in. When team members define how they'll support the broader goal, including the leading indicators they'll track to measure progress, they begin to take real ownership. The shift is powerful. Teams generate ideas their leaders wouldn't have considered. They become more energized and motivated than ever before, because the priorities are no longer assigned to them, they belong to them.
Leading Indicators: Measuring What Drives Results
A key element of this process is the use of leading indicators. While lagging indicators (like revenue or retention) tell you if you hit the goal, it's too late at that point to do anything about it. Leading indicators tell you if you're likely to succeed and give you time to adjust.
Teams should select lead measures that meet three criteria:
- Influenceable – The team can control the action.
- Predictive – The measure is highly correlated with the desired outcome.
- Actionable – If the number is off, the team knows what to do.
For example, instead of tracking "closed deals" (a lag measure), a sales team might track "qualified demos scheduled" per week. If the demo number drops, the team can act immediately. Over time, this alignment between lead measures and strategic priorities accelerates performance.
Assigning a clear owner to every metric further enhances accountability. When every critical number has a name attached, nothing falls through the cracks.
Scoreboards and Visibility: Keeping Execution Front and Center
Another best practice is maintaining a compelling Scoreboard. Visible metrics drive behavior. When teams can see whether they're winning, they play harder.
Whether digital or physical, team dashboards should include both lead and lag measures. Make them part of weekly meeting rhythms, where teams review progress, identify obstacles, and commit to actions. Transparency fosters accountability, not just to managers, but to peers.
Meeting Rhythms: The Cadence of Accountability
All of this only works when supported by consistent rhythms. A best practice is weekly meetings where teams:
- Report on progress toward priorities
- Review key metrics
- Identify and solve issues
- Make short-term commitments
This rhythm turns strategy into execution. It also creates rapid feedback loops, allowing issues to be addressed before they snowball. Keeping this meeting separate from other operational meetings that address problems and fires that come up throughout everyone's daily job is another best practice. This ensures that these priorities are viewed as priorities and don't get lost in the daily whirlwind.
Just as important is quarterly review and reset. Metrics, priorities, and scorecards must evolve as the business evolves. A hybrid model gives teams the agility to adjust their execution plans without waiting for another directive from the top.
From Compliance to Commitment
When companies shift to this model, the transformation is visible. Leaders stop feeling like they have to push every initiative. Teams start pulling toward shared goals. One of the most satisfying moments in this shift is when team members propose ideas and indicators that the leadership team would never have considered. That's when you know they're not just aligned—they're engaged.
This is the power of hybrid goal-setting. It preserves the clarity of top-down strategy while unlocking the energy, creativity, and execution power of the people closest to the work.
The CEO and leadership team sets the destination. The team reads the map, adjusts course, and makes the journey their own.
That's how you scale execution together!