--- title: "Episode 48: Competition as a Leadership Engine: Scoreboards That Work — with John Worden" description: "Javara commercial leader John Worden explains how shared scoreboards, clear roles, and \"share the why to get the buy\" turn competition into team performance." --- [![Velocity Advisory Group](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Velocity-Logo-2023-Wide-1.png)](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/) ☰ Menu - About - [Meet Our Team](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/about/) - [Meet Our Coaches](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/coaches/) - [Careers](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/careers/) - [Speaking Engagements](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/velocity-speakers/) - Solutions - [Culture & Engagement](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/culture-engagement/) - [DISC Assessments & Training](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/disc-assessments-training/) - [Employee Experience](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/employee-experience/) - [Executive Coaching](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/executive-coaching/) - [Family Business](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/family-business/) - [Leadership Development](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-development/) - [Sales Training](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/5cs-of-selling/) - [Strategy & Implementation](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/strategy-implementation/) - Resources - [Activating Greatness Podcast](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/podcast/) - [Blog](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/blog/) - [Case Studies](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/case-studies/) - [News and Announcements](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/news-and-events/) - [OrderDisc](https://orderdisc.com/) - [Upcoming Events](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/upcoming-events/) - Industries - [Construction](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/construction/) - [Financial Services](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/financial-services/) - [Life Sciences](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/lifesciences/) - [Contact](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/contact/) Activating Greatness Podcast Episodes September 17, 2026 | Episode 48 # Competition as a Leadership Engine: Scoreboards That Work — with John Worden ## Share the Why to Get the Buy: John Worden on Competition as a Leadership Engine **In this post:** *Javara commercial leader John Worden explains how to use competition as a leadership engine without creating lone wolves. He shares how he builds KPIs from both ends, explains the why behind every target, and celebrates the work behind each win.* Early in his management career, long before he came to see competition as a leadership engine, John Worden did what many new managers do. He handed out direction and expected the team to follow it. "I was just kind of implementing without explaining, and people weren't buying in," Worden said on *Activating Greatness*, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group. "You saw a lot of confusion." A leader gave him a fix he still uses: Share the why to get the buy. Worden, who has spent about 25 years in clinical research and now leads commercial teams at Javara, an embedded site network company, built a leadership philosophy around that line. A competitor and former team-sport athlete, he believes in scoreboards everyone can see. His argument is that competition makes a team stronger only when every player understands the score and the reason behind it. ## From Star to Star Maker Worden grew up playing team sports, and he absorbed their central lesson early. "You can be the best individual contributor, but ultimately, you're measured on the success of your team and what your team did," he said. The real shift came when he became a parent. "I got more excitement out of watching my kids succeed in sports and other things in school than I did my own self," he said. Around then, he found that thrill at work by putting people in a position to win and watching them do it. Host Alec McChesney put it this way: When you move into management, you are no longer the star. You are the star maker. ## Competition as a Leadership Engine, Not a Lone Wolf Contest McChesney raised a familiar risk. On sales teams, competition can slide into a me-versus-you culture where one person's win feels like another person's loss. Worden addresses it from the first day someone joins. "We each have to have each other's back," he tells new team members. A teammate who struggles this year gets help, and next year the roles may reverse. He also screens for it. "There are people out there that love to be lone wolves," Worden said. "They don't really want to play with anybody else. They don't want to help anybody else." His choice is clear. A team that has each other's back, he said, "performs better in the long run than going out and hiring someone that will score the most goals ever, but not really share that success with anybody else." The team extends well past the sales reps. When a deal closes, Worden recognizes the IT group that made systems available and the legal team that made contracting easy. "All those little pieces are part of the deal," he said. ## Build the Scoreboard From Both Ends Worden built his team's key performance indicators (KPIs) the way a coach builds a game plan. "If I'm a coach of a team, I need to know what's it going to take for us to win," he said. The team first defined winning, whether revenue, profitability, or satisfaction. Then it mapped the work into three buckets. "How do we find work? How do we win work? And then how do we deliver work?" Worden said. Each bucket became a detailed process, each process got defined roles, and each role got a metric. "It's not really a lagging metric, it's more of a leading metric," he said. The test came next. The team broke the top goal down through the organization, then built each role's numbers from the bottom up. When the two views match, you have metrics you can manage to. When they don't, "then you have a challenge within your organization," Worden said. You may need different roles or a different process. > "If you want buy-in, you better share the why." > > *John Worden, Javara* ## Share the Why, Then Get Out of the Way "You can't just say, you need 30 meetings this week, or you need 20 meetings this week, or you need five sales this month," Worden said. "Just laying out numbers like that don't mean anything to anybody." Leaders have to show why a given level of activity leads to the goal. Once people buy in, Worden gives them room. He recently managed two reps with similar targets and opposite styles. One built a volume machine. The other took a custom, hands-on approach with fewer outreaches. If one rep needed 100 outreaches to book 30 meetings and the other needed 40, the result was the same. "We just need 30 meetings," he said. The two eventually borrowed from each other's methods and both got better. "I don't want them to be a cog in a machine," Worden said. The guardrails come from four values he calls PAID: passion, accountability, ingenuity, and dedication. Passion is a table stake, he said, and when it runs out, it may be time to move on. Accountability means an "own it" mentality. Ingenuity means new ideas, including teammates who use AI in ways he had never considered. Dedication covers the team, the company, and yourself. Live those values, and you get paid. The standard applies to him too. "If I'm not living up to those, then I need to make a change," he said. FREE ONE-PAGE CHECKLIST ### The Team Scoreboard Checklist Define winning, tie every role to a leading metric, and explain the why behind each target so your team buys in. [Get the free checklist](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-library/team-scoreboard-checklist) ## Celebrate the Meetings, Not Just the Sales Worden's scoreboards run at three levels: company, team, and individual. Each rep has a daily scoreboard, and Worden checks KPI dashboards every day. His managers review each rep's numbers weekly, and he takes the roll-up to a weekly leadership team meeting. When someone trends behind, he does not issue orders. "It's more like, you tell me what you think you need to do," he said. It reflects the leadership habit he relies on every day: asking himself whether he is coaching or managing. Recognition is just as deliberate. A rep with no sales but a strong week of meetings gets celebrated. "I celebrate the person that had five meetings the same way the person had five sales," Worden said. A weekly summary calls out the proposal, legal, and finance groups that helped. "They want to be part of the winning process," he said. Winning does not mean riding every result. "You can't be too high, you can't be too low," Worden tells reps. "You just hit a home run, you walk around the bases like you've done this 1,000 times." Jason Casarella has also covered [coaching versus micromanaging](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-8-coaching-vs-micromanaging-jason-casarella) on the show, and Toni Burkard explained [why great teams don't happen by accident](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-23-why-great-teams-dont-happen-by-accident-toni-burkard). ## Key Takeaways 1. **Make the team the unit of competition.** Measure individuals, but make it clear everyone wins or loses together. Hire people who want to help teammates, not lone wolves. 2. **Build KPIs from the top down and the bottom up.** If the two views do not meet, you have a role or process problem to fix before you manage to the numbers. 3. **Share the why to get the buy.** A target without a reason is just a number. Show people how their activity connects to the goal. 4. **Set the standard, then allow different routes.** Clear values and targets create guardrails. Within them, let people win with their own strengths. 5. **Recognize leading indicators and behind-the-scenes work.** Celebrate strong activity weeks and the support teams behind each deal, and stay even through wins and losses. HOW VELOCITY HELPS ### Velocity Leadership Development & Emerging Leaders Worden's own turning point came as a new manager who implemented without explaining. Velocity's year-long Emerging Leaders program helps new leaders avoid that trap and make the move from star to star maker. Built on a 70/20/10 model with cohort coaching, reinforcement calls, and a Velocity Coach paired with every participant, the program lets leaders practice the habits Worden describes, including coaching instead of managing and explaining the why, on the real challenges their teams face. See how Velocity works with [life sciences organizations](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/lifesciences/). [Explore Leadership Development](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/leadership-development/) ## The Takeaway: Put the Why in Writing Worden still applies his best advice to every message he sends. When he provides direction or assigns actions, he asks himself one question. "Am I putting in here why we're doing this?" he said. That habit is what keeps his brand of competition healthy. A visible scoreboard tells people where they stand. The why tells them where they are going and why it matters. Leaders who share both get teams that compete hard and still have each other's back. ## Listen to the Full Episode Hear John Worden's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on *Activating Greatness*. [Find it on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@VelocityAdvisoryGroup), or listen on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/show/4LcgAut0KyYiGyDhFvMjPD) and [Apple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/id1868386871). FREE GUIDE ### The FWD Scoreboard Define what winning looks like for your revenue team, hire the right roster to get there, and set a meeting cadence that keeps every scoreboard visible and every rep focused on leading indicators. 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Velocity Advisory Group helps leadership teams build the culture, strategy, and systems that let good people do their best work. [Book a discovery call](https://www.velocityadvisorygroup.com/contact/) ## Related posts [Culture & Engagement](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/culture-engagement), [Strategy & Change](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/strategy-change) ## [Episode 33: Leading Transformational Change: Why Shaping the Path Works — with Melissa Pepper](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) Jun 15, 2026, 4:00:00 AM Shape the Path: Melissa Pepper on Why Change Fails and How to Make It Stick In this post: Lead(h)er... [Read more](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-33-leading-transformational-change-melissa-pepper) [Life Sciences & Healthcare](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/life-sciences-healthcare), [Leadership Mindset](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/tag/leadership-mindset) ## [Episode 34: Servant Leadership in Sales: Turn KPIs Into a Classroom — with Tom Wilson](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/ep-34-servant-leadership-in-sales-tom-wilson) [Alec McChesney](https://coaching.velocityadvisorygroup.com/activating-greatness-podcast-episodes/author/alec-mcchesney) Jun 22, 2026, 4:00:00 AM KPIs Are a Classroom: Tom Wilson on Servant Leadership in Commercial Teams In this post: AmbioPharm... 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