You know, most leaders I’ve run across — whether it was in a rail yard, a factory, or a boardroom — they’ve all got instincts.
We’ve all got a gut feeling about what makes somebody effective, or what makes a team tick.
The thing is, instincts without measurement? They’re just hunches.
And hunches don’t change outcomes.
The leaders who rise above are the ones who figure out how to take that hunch, treat it like a hypothesis, and then test it.
Not just once, but over and over again.
Lakers Story – Setback and Reinvention
Let me take you back to Los Angeles, 1986.
The Lakers — “Showtime” Lakers — Magic Johnson, Kareem, James Worthy.
On paper, they had the talent. They had the flash. But that year, they got bounced out of the playoffs.
Didn’t even make the Finals.
Now a lot of teams, a lot of leaders, would’ve just said, “We’ll get ‘em next year.”
But Coach Pat Riley? He thought differently.
He asked himself: What’s missing?
It wasn’t talent. It wasn’t skill. It was effort.
Not the kind of effort you see in a highlight reel — I’m talking about the small, invisible things that separate champions from everybody else.
So Riley reinvented how they measured success.
He built something called Career Best Effort — CBE.
And it was radical for its time.
His staff started tracking things you couldn’t find in the box score.
Loose balls, deflections, rebounds you chased even if you didn’t get ‘em.
Helping a teammate rotate on defense.
Taking a charge.
And here’s the key — the measure wasn’t about comparing one player to another.
It was about comparing each player to his own baseline.
“Are you better today than you were yesterday?”
That’s the question Riley drilled into his guys.
The result? In 1987, the Lakers were back on top, champions again.
In 1988, they repeated.
From disappointment to dynasty — all because they dared to measure what mattered most.
The Principle
That’s the principle I want to lay out for you.
Step one: Pick what you believe matters.
Step two: Find a way to measure it. Even if it’s crude at first.
Step three: Test it. Over time, see if it really ties to the outcome you want.
Step four: Prove or disprove. If the evidence says you’re wrong, don’t cling to it. Move on.
That’s how you turn leadership from guesswork into discipline.
Railroad Story – Field-Tested Proof
Now, let me take you out of the basketball arena and into the railroads — a world I know a little something about.
Picture this: A young plant manager in San Antonio.
He’s running a locomotive repair and service facility with more than 130 employees, round the clock.
That’s already a handful. But he starts noticing something strange.
On a branch line in South Texas, derailments keep happening.
Not once, not twice — over and over again.
Now here’s the setup:
Crews were hauling empty open-top hoppers southbound, then bringing them back loaded.
Speed limit was 20 miles an hour.
Problem was, the run took nearly the full 12-hour duty limit crews were allowed by law.
Under pressure to finish on time, some crews nudged that speed up — 21, 22, 23 miles an hour.
And here’s where physics entered the picture.
Research had shown that those empty hoppers hit a dangerous harmonic frequency around 23 or 24 miles an hour.
Kind of like when a bridge starts shaking in the wind, or when a glass sings just before it shatters.
At that speed, the cars destabilized. And trains came off the tracks.
Now this plant manager? He didn’t run train operations. He had no authority over crews.
But he did control one thing: the locomotives assigned to that line.
So he quietly made sure those locomotives had event recorders — black boxes that tracked speed and braking.
And when the next derailment happened, the evidence was right there in black and white.
The train had been going 23 miles an hour.
Right in the danger zone.
The derailments weren’t bad luck. They were the product of leadership pressure.
Somebody up the chain had made it clear: “Finish the run, no excuses.”
Even if it meant ignoring science. Even if it meant risking people’s lives.
And that’s where the lesson hit home: true leadership means standing on integrity, even at personal risk.
Because numbers without truth are just lies dressed up in spreadsheets.
Now let’s connect these dots.
Pat Riley measured hustle — the invisible things that made the difference between losing and winning.
That plant manager measured speed — the invisible truth that showed why derailments kept happening.
Two completely different settings.
One was about championships, the other about safety.
But the leadership principle was the same:
Choose what matters.
Measure it.
Let the evidence tell the truth.
And then act on it.
Why It Matters
Here’s why this matters to you and me as leaders:
Measurement makes effort visible. People do more of what they know is being tracked.
Measurement separates myth from fact. We all have beliefs. Evidence proves whether they’re right.
Measurement builds ownership. The standard is you vs. you. Nobody can hide behind “the other guy is more talented.”
Measurement creates learning. Being wrong isn’t failure — it’s discovery.
Measurement demands integrity. Because when the truth shows up in the data, real leaders don’t bury it. They face it.
So here’s my challenge to you.
Think about one belief you’ve been carrying about your team.
Maybe it’s that safety huddles really matter.
Maybe it’s that one-on-ones improve morale.
Maybe it’s that investing in training boosts productivity.
Don’t just believe it. Measure it.
Track it.
Test it.
And then be willing to face what the evidence tells you.
Because sometimes the difference between a losing season and a championship run…
or the difference between reckless risk and safe, sustainable work…
is simply the courage to measure what matters.
That’s the kind of leadership that lasts.
That’s the kind of leadership that builds legacies.
If this hit home, don’t let it be just another good idea. Pick one thing you believe drives performance — and start measuring it this week. And if you want help figuring out what that ‘one thing’ should be for your team… book a free clarity call. We’ll map it out together. Just click the link here: https://calendly.com/henrychidgey/45min?month=2025-09