Estratégia e Metas
Executive dashboard: how to connect strategic planning, execution, and performance
Understand what an executive dashboard is, why it often fails, and what it needs to connect planning, indicators, and execution.
An executive dashboard should be the single source leadership uses to track whether strategy is actually moving off the page. But it’s common for even large companies to track this across different tools, spreadsheets, and systems.
That fragmentation makes tracking harder and undermines leadership’s view of results and recurring problems in the business.
Scattered data also undermines the isolated use of corporate performanceopens in a new tab software: most systems still treat individual and corporate performance as separate things.
For the CEO, a department’s performance needs to be visibly tied to the business result. An executive dashboard integrated into a single management system connects strategic planning, indicators, and execution in one solution.
In this article, we explain what makes a dashboardopens in a new tab useful for executives and show the resources that solve leadership’s main challenges in this scenario.
What is an executive dashboard?
An executive dashboard is a management panel that brings together the main strategic indicatorsopens in a new tab for senior leadership decision making. A single panel shows strategic goals, performance KPIs, and the status of priority projects and action plans.
Unlike an operational dashboard, which tracks the routine of specific teams, the executive dashboard exists to show whether the company is executing its strategic plan and what results it’s achieving.
Why do planning and execution still disconnect?
Tracking an executive dashboard means looking at the management of strategy and corporate performance itself. But why do so many companies still struggle to connect planning, execution, and visibility into results?
The challenge is rarely a lack of data or software. It’s the lack of connection between them and the lack of clarity for senior leadership.
Three causes show up most often: planning and indicators in separate systems, generic dashboards with no strategic view, and execution with no traceability back to the goal.
| Cause | What happens in practice |
|---|---|
| Planning and indicators in separate systems | Strategy is defined in a document or presentation, but the indicators meant to measure it live in disconnected spreadsheets or BI tools. |
| Generic dashboards | BI panels show numbers, but don't connect them to goals, action plans, or owners: they become a report, not a management tool. |
| Execution with no traceability to the goal | Projects and tasks move forward without anyone knowing, in real time, whether they're contributing to the strategic indicator they're supposed to impact. |
Three common causes that make it hard to connect strategic planning and execution.
The impact of missing a systemic view
According to the Panorama de Gestão de Projetos Brasil 2026opens in a new tab report, 57.3% of professionals are unsatisfied with their companies’ project management maturity, and only 22.71% use dedicated software for it. Most still rely on spreadsheets or manual controls to track execution.
The Pulse of the Profession 2024opens in a new tab report, from the Project Management Institute (PMI), points to an average project performance rate of 73.8% among the organizations surveyed. More than a quarter of planned execution never plays out as intended.
In Siteware’s experience working with mid-size and large companies, the pattern repeats: there’s no routine that unites plan, indicator, and correction in a single management flow. That’s the gap a well-built executive dashboard needs to close.
What does an executive dashboard need to have?
Before choosing or building an executive dashboard, weigh these criteria:
- Direct connection between each indicator and the strategic objective it measures.
- Visibility into initiatives and action plans linked to the indicators they affect.
- Real-time updates, without relying on manual spreadsheet exports.
- A place to log cause and correction when an indicator drifts from its target.
- A month-by-month history of how indicators evolve.
Executive dashboard integrated with Stratws
Instead of treating strategic planning, indicators, and initiatives as isolated modules, Stratws, Siteware’s performance software, integrates these fronts in a single platform:
- Structured strategic planning: perspectives, strategic objectives, and action plans live in the same base that feeds the indicators and dashboards.
- Indicators connected to objectives: each KPI appears linked to its strategic objective and the corresponding owner. You can see not just what’s happening, but what it means for the strategy.
- Initiatives with course correction: when an indicator moves off track, the initiative or action plan linked to it stays visible on the same panel, with space to log the cause and the corrective action.
- Consolidated executive dashboard: leadership tracks goals, indicators, and execution in a single panel, without relying on manual reports or scattered information.
Read next: How Stratws works and who it’s foropens in a new tab
This integration is what sets a strategic executive dashboard apart from a plain panel. It doesn’t just display numbers: it shows the full chain between planning, indicator, action, and course correction when something goes off script.
How is this managed at your company? Do the CEO and senior leadership have this full view of planning, strategy, execution, and results?
The companies with the most control over their results are the ones that have already recognized the value of a strategy that’s executed and tracked systematically. Vale, Votorantim, MRS, Grupo Fácil, and Sompo Seguros are a few examples.
To see Stratws in practice, visit our site and request a free demoopens in a new tab. If you have any questions, get in touch with us.
Frequently asked questions
What makes it hard to connect strategic planning to performance software?
The main obstacle is fragmentation: planning, indicators, and execution tend to live in separate systems or spreadsheets, with no direct link between them. That keeps leadership from seeing, in one place, whether execution is actually moving the strategy forward.
What's the difference between an executive dashboard and an operational dashboard?
An operational dashboard tracks the day-to-day routines and indicators of a specific team or process. An executive dashboard consolidates the company's most critical strategic indicators, built for senior leadership decision making.
Which indicators should appear on an executive dashboard?
The indicators directly tied to the company's strategic objectives, such as growth targets, operational efficiency, and results by area. Each one should be connected to an action plan with a defined owner.
How does Stratws connect indicators, goals, and strategic initiatives in a single dashboard?
Stratws structures strategic planning, indicators, and initiatives in the same database, linking each KPI to its objective, owner, and action plan. That removes the need to consolidate information manually before every results meeting.
Does Stratws have ready-made executive dashboard templates?
Yes. Stratws' Reports and Visual Management features already work as ready-made executive dashboards, organizing the indicators and goals registered in the system into visual panels with no extra setup needed.
About the author
Raquel Marinho
Raquel is a Journalist and works as a Marketing Analyst at Siteware, where she writes about management, performance and people. With more than 5 years producing content on these topics, her work is translating complex strategic management subjects into clear, useful content for those who lead teams and results day to day.