Manager follow-through rate is the percentage of a manager's dated commitments to their direct reports that those reports confirm were kept. It is measured over a rolling window, usually 13 weeks, from the reports' private answers rather than the manager's own record.
Definition
A commitment is a specific, dated promise from a manager to one of their reports. "Call review with Sam, Wednesday 11:00." "Chase finance on the Harper deal by Thursday." At the end of the week the report is asked, in private, whether each commitment was kept. Follow-through is the share that were.
It is a measure of management behaviour, not of team output. A manager with a team that hit target and a follow-through rate of 40% got lucky this quarter. A manager at 90% with a team that missed is at least doing the job, and the question moves to whether the help is the right help.
The formula
follow-through rate = commitments confirmed kept ÷ commitments with a response × 100
Over a rolling 13-week window. Commitments the report did not answer are left out of both numbers rather than counted as kept or not kept. Commitments the manager withdrew before the due date, with the report told, are also left out.
Worked example
Priya manages seven reps. Over 13 weeks she makes 182 commitments (two per rep per week). Reps respond to 171 of them. 157 are confirmed kept, 14 not kept.
157 ÷ 171 = 91.8%, shown as 92%.
Omar manages eight. 208 commitments, 190 responses, 97 kept.
97 ÷ 190 = 51%.
Same company, same quarter, same product. One manager is managing and one is not, and the difference is visible before either team's quarter closes.
Three rules that keep it honest
- Suppressed under five responses. A rate built on fewer than five answers is not shown. It stops a manager with two reps gaming it and stops a small team being embarrassed by one bad week.
- Implausibly perfect is flagged. A rate of 100% over 13 weeks on a team of eight is more likely to mean the reps are being leaned on than that the manager is perfect. It is marked for a leader to look at.
- The report's answer is final. A manager can see their own rate. They cannot see who said what, and they cannot change an answer. A dispute goes to ops or the director, not back to the manager.
Why the rep confirms, not the manager
Every other management record is written by the manager. Their one-to-one notes, their coaching log, their review of the rep. That is the manager marking their own homework, and it is why those records are worth so little when a rep says "nobody helped me". The rep's confirmation is the only version of events that is not the manager's.
It also changes behaviour. A manager who knows their reps will be asked on Friday whether Tuesday's call review happened tends to do Tuesday's call review.
How leaders use it
Three ways. First, as the behaviour column on the Monday team sheet, next to the outcome columns (reps short of target, what the gap costs, leavers), so you can see when one explains the other. Second, as the first thing to look at when a team loses people. The last twelve weeks of a manager's follow-through usually tell you more than the exit interviews. Third, from January 2027, as evidence. When a leaver with six months' service says they were never supported, the record of what their manager committed to and what the leaver themselves confirmed is the answer.
Welivo calculates the rate this way for every manager, every week. See the product.
See your Monday team sheet
Twenty minutes with the team. Bring your team structure, he shows you what your managers' follow-through would look like.