If you’ve ever tried to rally a team around shared goals, you know how hard it is to keep everyone focused—especially when you’re drowning in spreadsheets and status updates. That’s where a live leaderboard in Geckoboard can help. But let’s be real: a flashy dashboard won’t magically fix broken processes, and a poorly set up leaderboard can do more harm than good.
This guide is for managers, ops folks, or anyone tasked with making team performance visible—without making everyone miserable. We’ll cut through the fluff and get into what actually works when you’re setting up team leaderboards that people trust, understand, and even enjoy.
1. Know Why You Want a Leaderboard (and Be Honest)
Before you even log into Geckoboard, ask yourself: what’s the real goal here?
- Motivation: Are you trying to fire people up with a little friendly competition, or just keep folks aware of where they stand?
- Transparency: Maybe you want to make sure nobody’s flying under the radar.
- Accountability: Or are you using this to drive performance conversations?
Pro tip: If you’re just doing this because your boss said “we need a dashboard,” stop. Figure out what you actually want to achieve. A vague leaderboard helps no one and annoys everyone.
What to avoid
- Don’t just measure what’s easy to count. Focus on what matters to your team’s success.
- Don’t use leaderboards to publicly shame people who are struggling. That’s a great way to kill morale.
2. Pick Metrics That Actually Matter
This is where most leaderboard projects go off the rails. It’s tempting to cram every stat you can find into your dashboard, but less is almost always more.
Good metrics are:
- Actionable: If someone’s falling behind, they know what to do about it.
- Relevant: The metric actually moves the needle for your team.
- Timely: Data updates often enough to be useful—ideally daily, or even live.
- Clear: No need for a PhD to understand the number.
Examples:
- Sales teams: Calls made, deals closed, pipeline value
- Support teams: Tickets resolved, CSAT score, response time
- Dev teams: Bugs closed, stories completed (but avoid metrics that encourage cutting corners)
What to skip
- Vanity metrics. “Tasks created” doesn’t mean tasks are getting done.
- Anything that encourages bad behavior just to hit a number (think: closing tickets quickly but poorly).
- Data that’s always out of date.
3. Set Up Your Data Sources Right
Geckoboard pulls data from a lot of tools—Salesforce, Zendesk, Google Sheets, and more. But garbage in, garbage out.
How to do this (without losing your mind):
- Decide on your source of truth. Don’t patch together data from five places if you can avoid it.
- Automate updates. If your leaderboard isn’t close to real-time, people will stop trusting it.
- Test data accuracy. Before rolling anything out, spot check numbers against your original source. People will notice if their hard work isn’t showing up.
Pro tip: If your data lives in a spreadsheet, set up a simple sync or use Geckoboard’s integrations. Manual copy-pasting is a recipe for mistakes.
4. Build a Simple, Obvious Layout
People shouldn’t need a training session to read your leaderboard.
Keep it simple:
- Columns: Name, metric, maybe a trend arrow or sparkline—done.
- Sorting: Obvious order, like “top performer at the top.”
- Highlight what matters: Use color or icons sparingly to show who’s on top, who’s improved, or who needs help.
- Group or filter as needed: If you have big teams, consider breaking down by region, squad, or shift.
- Mobile/responsive: If your team isn’t always at a desk, check how your leaderboard looks on phones or TVs.
What to skip
- Overly “gamified” designs (badges, confetti, etc.). Unless your team specifically loves that, it gets old fast.
- Clutter: Ditch extra columns, pie charts, or “fun facts.” Stick to the main event.
5. Make the Leaderboard Visible—But Not Overbearing
A leaderboard buried in a browser tab doesn’t do much. But you also don’t want it looming over people like the Eye of Sauron.
Best practices:
- Put it where it matters: TV in the office, a shared monitor, or a pinned browser tab.
- Share regular updates: Quick Slack posts or email snapshots can keep remote teams in the loop.
- Encourage team review: Talk about the leaderboard in standups or team meetings, but don’t obsess over it.
- Respect privacy: Don’t broadcast individual names if your culture isn’t into it. Sometimes anonymized or group scores work better.
6. Set the Tone and Talk About It
The way you introduce and discuss the leaderboard matters as much as the numbers themselves.
- Be transparent: Explain what’s being measured, how, and why.
- Invite feedback: If people think a metric’s unfair, listen. You might be missing something.
- Avoid blame: Use the leaderboard as a conversation starter, not a stick to beat people with.
- Celebrate wins: Shout out improvements, not just “top spot” holders.
Pro tip: If you sense the leaderboard is stressing people out or encouraging shortcuts, rethink your metrics or how you’re using it.
7. Review and Tweak—Don’t “Set and Forget”
No dashboard is perfect on the first try. Metrics drift, team goals shift, and what worked last quarter might not make sense now.
- Schedule reviews: Every month or quarter, check in with the team. What’s working? What isn’t?
- Retire stale metrics: Nobody cares about a number that hasn’t changed in weeks.
- Experiment: Try new layouts, swap in different stats, or adjust how you group people.
What Works (and What Doesn’t)
What works
- Focusing on a handful of metrics people actually care about
- Keeping the layout dead simple and easy to read
- Making it visible and updating it automatically
- Using it to spark conversation, not competition for competition’s sake
What doesn’t
- Tracking everything just because you can
- Using leaderboards as a “wall of shame”
- Relying on manual data entry or updates
- Letting the board get stale and ignored
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
A good team performance leaderboard makes the important stuff visible, sparks useful conversations, and helps people see their impact. But don’t overthink it. Start small, get feedback, and tweak as you go. The best boards are the ones people actually look at—and trust.
If your leaderboard feels more like a chore than a tool, scale it back. The point isn’t to impress the execs; it’s to help your team win together.