A leading measure is one that gives advance (leading) information related to our intended outcome. This type of measure is prized because it allows action to be taken in advance of the outcome we care about. Example: Customer satisfaction - A low customer feedback score gives you a chance to intervene, potentially recover that customer and protect their repeat custom. A lagging measure tells you what happened after the thing you care about. Example, 'closed accounts' might be a lagging kpi for customer satisfaction (or dissatisfaction). Once the customer closes an account it is likely to be much harder to win them round to using our services again. There are lots of strong opinions on leading and lagging indicators, but the truth is that it's impossible to run a business just on lagging or solely on leading measures. Most organisations manage their performance measurement using a mixture of both.