{"id":1443,"date":"2025-04-22T11:19:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/?p=1443"},"modified":"2025-04-22T11:26:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-22T11:26:51","slug":"how-does-your-team-know-if-theyre-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/how-does-your-team-know-if-theyre-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does Your Team Know If They&#8217;re Winning?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><em>&#8220;What you don\u2019t measure, you can\u2019t improve.&#8221; \u2013 Dan Martell<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Let me paint a picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s Sunday afternoon. You&#8217;re watching the Detroit Lions. The game&#8217;s going strong &#8211; but something feels&#8230; well, off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>No scoreboard.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No stats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No score updates.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>No metrics to help tell the players apart on the field<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Just a bunch of dudes hitting each other, running plays, and everyone hoping it all means something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most likely, you&#8217;d probably not stay engaged watching for too long.\u00a0<br><br>What\u2019s the point of playing a game if no one knows the score?<br><br>And yet &#8211; most organizations run exactly like that. Teams show up, do the work, go home\u2026 but no one really knows if it was a win or a loss.<br><br>FULL DISCLOSURE\u2026 This is an area where I\u2019ll be the first to admit &#8211; I haven\u2019t always done the best job.<br><br>One of my personal core values is that I \u201cassume the best.\u201d I believe people want to win. They all want to be great.<br><br>But sometimes\u2026 assuming the best without showing the scoreboard? That just turns into confusion, frustration, and underperformance. It\u2019s not leadership &#8211; it\u2019s wishful thinking. It&#8217;s\u00a0operating\u00a0strictly on hope and prayer!\u00a0<br><br><strong>WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS IMPROVED<\/strong><br><br>Keeping score doesn\u2019t mean micromanaging. It means giving your team the gift of clarity.<br><br>People crave progress. They want to know what \u201cgreat\u201d looks like. And most of all \u2014 they want to know if they\u2019re actually hitting it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em><strong>&#8220;You can\u2019t grow what you don\u2019t track.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/strong><\/em><br><br><strong>(3) TAKEAWAYS ON KEEPING SCORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-center is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-94bc23d7 wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\">\n<p><em>1. Scoreboards Create Ownership<\/em><br>When your team can see the goal and track the outcome, they stop blaming and start owning.<br>Whether it\u2019s revenue, job completion time, client feedback, retention, call-backs, etc. &#8211; make the score known and visible.<br><br><em>2. Metrics Build Momentum<\/em><br>Ever noticed how players light up when they know they\u2019re close to breaking a record?<br>Same goes for our team. If they know they\u2019re close to the target, they\u2019ll push harder to hit it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fillerimage-1024x683.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1444\" style=\"width:463px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fillerimage-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fillerimage-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fillerimage-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/fillerimage.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>3. Tracking Brings Truth<\/em><br>Numbers don\u2019t lie. They reveal strengths, expose gaps, and create coaching moments.<br>Without metrics, you\u2019re just guessing \u2014 and usually guessing wrong.Your team isn\u2019t any different.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote has-base-2-background-color has-background is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em><em>&#8220;People do what people see. If they see no score, they assume it doesn\u2019t matter.&#8221; &#8211;&nbsp; John Maxwell<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><br>If the Detroit Lions waited until Week 17 to turn the scoreboard on, fans would not be fans too long and players would check out.<br><br>If you want to build a high-performing culture, one that wins consistently and grows people &#8211; <em>Start keeping score.<\/em><br><br>1) Make it visual.<br>2) Make it simple.<br>3) Make it matter.<br>If your team showed up tomorrow and gave it everything they had, would they even know if they won? Or&#8230; Lost?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hope isn\u2019t a strategy. Trust me on this one!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8220;Hope is not a metric.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;What you don\u2019t measure, you can\u2019t improve.&#8221; \u2013 Dan Martell Let me paint a picture. It\u2019s Sunday afternoon. You&#8217;re watching the Detroit Lions. The game&#8217;s going strong &#8211; but something feels&#8230; well, off. Just a bunch of dudes hitting each other, running plays, and everyone hoping it all means something. Most likely, you&#8217;d probably not &#8230; <a title=\"How Does Your Team Know If They&#8217;re Winning?\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/how-does-your-team-know-if-theyre-winning\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about How Does Your Team Know If They&#8217;re Winning?\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-motivational"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1443"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1454,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1443\/revisions\/1454"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samgembel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}