“Well done? Are you sure? It’s Australian grass-fed beef. It will lose its taste.”

I’ve always loved cooking steak for family and friends. For me, the joy lies not just in flavour, but in the challenge — the mini-adventure of hitting the perfect cook for each guest.

For years I avoided cooking thermometers. I felt they killed the sense of flow, the jazz of adjusting by instinct and observation.

But after a few failed attempts on my gas grill — and wasting some fairly expensive cuts — I gave probes a try.

Now, with four wireless thermometers feeding (see what I did there?) real-time data to my phone, I almost always hit the perfect medium-rare (around 57°C). And I caught myself thinking: “Why didn’t I do this earlier? What gets properly measured, gets properly cooked.”

Here’s the lesson — and why it matters at work:

Many professionals prize autonomy and freedom above all. Rightly so. But autonomy doesn’t cancel the need for structure. Lawyers in a firm, for example, still need to align with collective goals.

A law firm might set a 2026 revenue target of €1m, split into budgets for different teams — litigation €300k, corporate €350k, banking €250k.

Yet many lawyers resist goals and KPIs, seeing them as alien to their role as “servants of justice.” But without clear targets, tracking, and measurement, firms drift. That’s why, as a consultant, I always advocate simple, concrete goals — even just five bullet points on paper.

Take a simplified example for “John Andreou” in accidents & insurance law:

• Invoice €50,000 in legal fees in 2026.

• Publish 3 journal articles in the field.

• Attend 5 conferences and record 20 new contacts.

• Deliver 3 internal knowledge-sharing presentations.

• Reduce outstanding uncollected fees by 30%.

Will John hit every goal? Maybe not. But he’ll progress further than if he had no goals at all.

It’s the same as cooking steak with a probe:

• Set the target temperature (eg 57°C = medium rare, or €50,000 revenue).

• Track progress (internal temperature vs KPIs).

• Adjust until you get it right.

That’s how steak — and performance — go from “hit-and-miss” to consistently well done.

👉 If you’re leading a team, what’s one metric you’ll start tracking more closely this quarter?

Have a productive week ahead,

Philippos