A franchise ops director changed my mind last week.
I'd been telling anyone who'd listen that location leaderboards have a definition problem.
One location counts a form fill as a lead. Another counts a qualified phone call. The leaderboard treats them as the same word.
My fix: get every location onto one shared definition.
Her reply, more or less: that's not the problem.
The problem is what happens the moment the number becomes a ranking.
The operator who counts honestly drops down the board. The operator who counts loosely climbs it. And every other location watches it happen and learns the real lesson:
Don't operate better. Count looser.
Her fix makes total sense. Standardize the definitions, but keep the metric off the competitive scoreboard. Use it for coaching, so your most disciplined operator becomes the example instead of the loser.
A metric is either a verdict or a conversation.
Verdicts get gamed. Conversations get trusted.
Who's the operator in your system the rankings have never done justice?
Originally posted by Taylor Minnis on LinkedIn, August 2026. Taylor Minnis is a Growth Strategist at TapClicks in San Jose, California. More about Taylor.