How to Motivate Your Team by Building a Better Scoreboard

Few things motivate like competition. The euphoria of a win can be enough to propel us through even the most mundane tasks.

Competition is most easily recognized in the context of sports. Thousands of fans across the country watch their favorite athletes compete week after week for thrill of winning a game, and hopefully, a championship.

But why can’t we experience the same level of excitement and motivation as we walk into work on a Monday morning? What is it about sports that is so fun, and why can’t we replicate that same feeling at our own day job?

I think a lot of it is due to the lack of competition. We go to work to complete a task when we should be going to win a game.

Winning at Work

We owe it to ourselves, and our teams, to create an environment at work where winning is possible. Not only would competition make work more fun, but also more productive.

So where do we start? I believe that when our workplace lacks competition, it’s usually because we haven’t built a compelling scoreboard.

We’re usually pretty good at identifying the competition. It’s either external or internal. We compete against someone else, or we compete against our own past performance.

But it’s a scoreboard that we lack. Without a scoreboard, there is no game, and the notion of winning becomes impossible. That’s why if we want to experience winning in the workplace, and the motivation that comes with it, we need to first focus on building a better scoreboard.

3 Characteristics of a Compelling Scoreboard

Not every scoreboard is created the same. Knowing what makes a scoreboard compelling can put us on track to build a more competitive environment.

1. Good Scoreboards Are Visible

As you walk into the stands of the Mercedes-Benz stadium, home to the Atlanta Falcons, you’re greeted by one of the largest scoreboards on the planet. 62,350 square feet of bright LED pixels help Falcon fans know when to cheer.

Some of us keep business metrics and other data useful for a scoreboard hidden away on our computers, when we would do better to share that information with the team. A good scoreboard is always available at a glance, reminding us every day how we’re performing relative to our competition.

Hidden scoreboards are no help to anyone. Here are three suggestions to improve visibility:

1. Mount a cheap TV on the wall with your scoreboard as the screen-saver
2. Build your scoreboard on a whiteboard in the conference room where your team meets every day
3. Create a dashboard in Google Data Studio and set the preferences to email your team daily updates

2. Good Scoreboards Are Simple

Imagine how much data the Atlanta Falcons could show on 62,350 square feet of real estate if they wanted. Every advanced stat you can think of would probably fit.

Now put yourself in the shoes of their head coach faced with making a split second decision on whether or not you should go for a 2-point conversion. You would be pretty upset if you couldn’t quickly glance up and find the one piece of information you really needed – the score.

A good scoreboard is simple. It should be easy to read and quick to understand.

Get clear on what game you’re playing and figure out what metrics are most important. Just because you have the data, doesn’t mean you need to show it.

3. Good Scoreboards Are Doable

Scoreboards require data. And if that data is difficult or cumbersome to get, it won’t take long before a good intention becomes a forgotten relic.

This is why it’s so important that you keep your scoreboard simple. It’s so easy to get information today (which is exciting to an engineer like myself) but it poses a temptation to get buried in it.

The value of a scoreboard is in the competition and decisions that they drive. There’s no value in building the scoreboard in and of itself.

Automate whenever possible. If your scoreboard is built on your computer, use apps like Zapier to help automate data collection. The less time and effort required to maintain your scoreboard, the more likely you’ll keep it around.

The Final Score

Many of us envy professional athletes because they get paid to play the games we love. But the thrill of sports really resides in the underlying competition and euphoria of winning.

Competition and winning shouldn’t be reserved for athletic activities. As leaders within or organization, it’s our responsibility to create the same type of environment where we work.

Healthy competition in the workplace motivates us to perform our best. Getting there starts with a better scoreboard.