Collaboration Points is Performance Leader's peer-based recognition tool. It lets your people recognise the colleagues who genuinely helped them during a cycle, turning collaboration — usually one of the hardest things to measure — into a clear, peer-generated metric your leaders can act on.
What Collaboration Points is
Collaboration Points gives each participant a small pool of points to award to the peers who supported or collaborated with them over the review period, along with a short narrative explaining why. The results give firm leaders a peer-generated view of who the firm's best collaborators and connectors really are — and lets them link that behaviour to recognition and reward.
The tool has its origins in a partner-contribution system first designed at a large international law firm and has since been adopted by firms around the world. It solves a persistent problem in professional firms: the shortage of good metrics for strategic, non-financial behaviours like collaboration.
You may see this feature referred to by different names depending on your firm — Peer Points, Collaboration Credits, Contribution Credits or Connection Credits. They all describe the same tool.
Why firms use it
Match strategic intent with accountability — signal that collaboration matters, and measure it rather than relying on folklore or self-promotion.
Recognise the people who might otherwise be missed — lower-profile connectors and quiet networkers often surface here for the first time.
Give leaders evidence — a quantitative, peer-sourced input that adds rigour to otherwise "soft" assessment criteria, useful in reviews and remuneration discussions.
How it works
Each participant receives a pool of points (10 by default) to allocate to peers who helped them during the period.
They allocate points and add a narrative describing how that person helped and what the business impact was. This qualitative layer is where much of the value sits — it shows what behaviours the firm values, not just who scored well.
Leaders and the Remuneration Committee use the results to recognise, celebrate and reward the firm's strongest collaborators, and to understand how collaboration flows across the firm.
Key design principles
A few deliberate design choices make the tool work well and discourage gaming:
Allocations are anonymous between peers. People don't know who awarded them points, so no one feels pressure to credit more senior or powerful colleagues, and "you scratch my back" swaps don't pay off.
The focus is on celebrating the top, not naming the bottom. The intent is to recognise outstanding collaborators — not to shame those who receive few points.
The narrative matters as much as the number. Encouraging a short "how they helped me" story gives leaders context and reinforces the behaviours the firm wants to see.
Full detail is visible to evaluators, not peers. The people conducting the performance and reward assessment can see the full picture (who gave points to whom); participants cannot.
Total points received matters, but so does breadth — how many different people and different departments or offices recognised someone. A partner recognised widely across the firm is making a different kind of impact than one recognised only within their own team.
Setting up Collaboration Points in a cycle
Collaboration Points is enabled as part of a review cycle. When you configure the cycle, you can tailor it to your firm:
Points pool — the number of points each participant can allocate (10 is the common default).
Extra points for specific groups — some firms give a larger pool (e.g. 20) to new partners, partners returning from parental leave, or those who have moved offices, to give extra weight to supporting these colleagues.
Reasons taxonomy — a predetermined list of reason categories that people choose from when awarding points (for example: help developing a new client, help in a specialist area, mentoring, cross-practice support). Reasons are selected from the list rather than typed as free text, so the data can be analysed consistently. The narrative comment is free text.
Reserved / ring-fenced points — you can require a portion of the pool to be directed at a specific theme (for example, 5 points for business development and 5 for collaboration).
Audience — although the tool was originally designed for partners, it can be run across a wider population; you'll typically want to review the reasons taxonomy so it fits all participants.
Configuration is handled with your Performance Leader CX contact as part of building the cycle. Reach out if you'd like to adjust the pool size, reasons, reserved points, or who participates.
Allocating points (the participant experience)
When a participant reaches the Collaboration Points step in their review, they:
Choose the colleagues they want to recognise.
Allocate points from their pool to each person.
Select a reason from the list and add a short narrative explaining how the person helped and the impact it had.
Submit as part of their review.
Because allocations are anonymous to recipients, encourage people to be candid and to recognise genuine help wherever it came from — not just the most senior or visible colleagues.
Reading the results
Allocation data flows into the Collab Points lens and related reporting, where leaders can explore recognition across the firm. Highlights include:
View | What it tells you |
Individual leaderboard | Who received the most points, how many distinct people recognised them (breadth), and how many distinct departments (cross-functional reach). |
Recognition categories | Why people allocated points — the reasons selected — showing what the firm values most. |
Points distribution | How points are spread across people; a healthy spread vs. concentration on a few individuals. |
Points flow network | A dependency wheel showing how points flow between departments — who is giving to whom. |
Given vs. received | Which departments are net recipients of recognition and which are generous recognisers. |
Internal vs. external recognition | How much of a group's recognition comes from outside itself — a measure of cross-firm contribution. |
Recognition themes | A word cloud drawn from the narrative comments, surfacing common themes. |
Excel exports of the individual and department leaderboards are also available for offline analysis and committee prep.
Most firms find the total score is important — top performers often receive well above the average — but the real insight comes from breadth and direction: recognition that crosses teams, offices and practice groups tells you where collaboration is genuinely happening.
Best practices
Frame it as a pilot. Introducing a collaboration metric can create anxiety. Positioning the first run as a one- or two-year pilot lowers resistance and gives partners room to engage with an open mind.
Lead with recognition and storytelling. Publicly celebrating your strongest collaborators — and telling the stories behind the points — is what turns the data into cultural change.
Protect anonymity. Keep peer-to-peer allocations anonymous so results stay honest.
Expect a normal spread. In most firms the bulk of people sit in the middle, with a smaller number at the very high and very low ends. That's expected — the value is in identifying and recognising the standouts.
Connect it to your strategy. Make sure your reasons taxonomy reflects the collaborative behaviours your firm actually wants to encourage.
FAQs
How many points does each person get? Ten by default, though this is configurable. Some firms give selected groups (e.g. new partners, those returning from leave, or partners who have changed offices) a larger pool such as 20.
Can recipients see who gave them points? No. Allocations are anonymous between peers. The full detail is visible only to those conducting the performance and reward assessment.
Do people have to explain their allocations? They choose a reason from a predefined list and are encouraged to add a short narrative. The narrative is optional free text but adds significant value, so it's worth encouraging.
Can we run it for everyone, not just partners? Yes. It was originally designed for partners but can be run firm-wide. Review the reasons taxonomy first so the categories make sense for the broader population.
Where does the data appear? In the Collab Points lens and related reporting, plus Excel exports of the individual and department leaderboards.
How do we change the setup? Points pool, reasons, reserved points and audience are configured as part of building the review cycle. Contact your Performance Leader CX team to make changes.
Need more help? Contact your Performance Leader Customer Success Manager (CSM) for more information or to tailor Collaboration Points for your firm.