When Dr. Brad Smart released his book Topgrading, I was all in. Not because he gave us anything new, he didn’t. Instead, his book was a complete playbook of smart practices of finding, getting, and keeping the people we want in our organizations.

When I came across his discussion of the job scorecard, my antenna went up because I had never heard of this concept, so I was intrigued. Topgrading is more than a book; it’s a consulting organization, so I’m confident his team uses the job scorecard effectively. However, I was not impressed. I find his scorecard example too ecrutiatingly detailed, so I’ve modified this tool for those I serve.

In this brief article, I’ll show you an example of Topgrading’s job scorecard, then the very first job scorecard I created for a growing business in Rolla, Missouri. Finally, we’ll create a job scorecard for a company’s very first accounting manager, who is about to be hired for a $60 million distributor.