Beware The Scoreboard
"The scoreboard only tells you what already happened. Your process tells you what happens next." — Steve Martin, Vision-Keeper, Dream Coach, and Grandfather
Here’s the thing about scoreboards: they’re really good at one job and terrible at every other job we assign them.
Their one good job is keeping score. That’s it. That’s the whole résumé.
We ask them to do so much more. We ask them to tell us if we’re worthy, if we’re on track, if the whole enterprise is working. We check them compulsively, as if enough checking might change what they say.
It won’t. The scoreboard doesn’t care how many times you look at it.
The process cares. The process is listening. Every rep, every honest hour, every difficult conversation you didn’t avoid — the process is taking notes, and eventually, the scoreboard will catch up and report what the process already knew.
So stop asking the scoreboard to do a job it was never built for. Go do the work instead. The score is just an echo. Stop shouting at the echo. Go talk to the source.
My grandpa always said:
”Tthe scoreboard tells you what happened. Your feet tell you what happens next. Watch your feet.”
One Simple Action You Can Take Today
Pick one number you check compulsively (balance, followers, grade portal) and set a fixed, rare schedule for checking it — then stick to it.
Insights From My Advisory Board
Abraham Lincoln: Would connect it to patient, unglamorous persistence through setbacks that never showed up favorably on any contemporary “scoreboard.”