The Underlying Problem with Being Too Performance-Focused as a Young Leader

"There are no shortcuts to any place worth going." - Beverly Sills

I speak to a lot of young leaders who are feeling the pressure to achieve their goals and take control of their future. They are feeling the global marketplace and workplace is getting increasingly complex and highly competitive.

Some are worried about losing their jobs due to lack of training, Artificial intelligence (AI) or international conflicts about trade policies and tariffs. According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer, 59% of employees were worried about not having the training and skills necessary to get a good paying job. This fear is exacerbated by the fact that most organizations are not good at empowering their employees to succeed by either helping them acquire valuable experiences, explore new roles, or continually reinvent themselves. 59% of respondents in the 2018 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends rated their organizations as not effective or only somewhat effective at empowering people to manage their own careers. These fears have led to an increased lack of confidence and hope among many young leaders around the world.

But if you are like most of the young leaders I work with, you probably have been told that the key to overcoming this fear and complexity and rising above your competition is to set goals, become more productive and perform at a higher level. That’s true, but there is more you need to know before you start setting goals for yourself or your team.

When I talk to these young leaders about their goals, I can feel they are living in what I would call a “performance mode." They are sensing the intense pressure to produce tangible results and “make the numbers."

Some of the things they tell me include:

I want to grow my income by 15 percent this quarter.

I want to increase my company’s revenue by 25 percent this year.

Goal setting is a common prescription most young leaders use when they’re looking to perform at a higher level and grow their careers. There is nothing evil about that. I believe goal setting is how you become who you want to be. Using goals to unlock massive growth in your team seems like a noble thing to do. You will hear me preach this gospel sometimes. I am a strong believer in setting personal goals and taking action to reach and surpass those goals.

However, I have to caution you. There is overwhelming scientific evidence that proves a too much focus on performance is bad for you and can actually work against you in the long-term. This evidence has been there for a while. We just don’t talk about it that much. We only bring it up when things go wrong. I hope I am not late for you. I hope things haven’t reached the point of no return in your career.

Gerard Seijts of Richard Ivey School of Business, who is the co-author of a 2005 research paper titled Learning versus performance goals, argued that setting specific performance goals can sometimes actually worsen performance. These same findings were also shared by Max Bazerman of Harvard Business School who is the co-author of a 2009 research paper titled Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting, who argued that performance goals have powerful side effects that have largely been ignored by many so-called “goal-setting experts."

I know that too much data and research doesn’t help you right now if you are feeling the pressure. But hear me out.

Performance goals place huge demands on your cognitive processes causing your mind to be highly active and anxious. This creates performance anxiety (not the one you're thinking about), which leads you to narrowly focus your attention on reaching the goal while overlooking other essential elements that are not specified in your goals.

A good example of this is a digital marketing young leader who has a goal to increase his or her company’s product sales by 50% this year while ignoring other instrumental qualities that are essential to sales growth like value creation, brand message, consistency, generosity, and personal growth.

The attentional demands that can be imposed on your mind are limited and trying to attain a specific challenging performance goal places additional demands on your mind which can end up sabotaging your efforts and results.

I am sure by now you have heard of the 2015 Volkswagen's Emissions-Testing Scandal (Yes, this is relevant to your career as a young leader). Various reports about the company indicated that its employees endured emotional and economic pressures to meet often-unrealistic corporate sales goals. This likely led to those employees to install emissions test-cheating software in vehicles. From a public relations standpoint, the incident was a disaster. From a business perspective it was catastrophic, Volkswagen's share price plummeted more than 20% immediately after the news broke. In a March 2020 Reuters article, Volkswagen said this scandal had cost it 31.3 billion euros, and with various government and civil actions that are still underway, this number is likely to go up.

I am not against setting performance goals for yourself or your team. It is important, however, that you know the potential side-effects. That’s why you need to focus on learning and growth and not fixate on performance. You have to adapt to situations. You have to see what is in front of you. You have to become highly relevant. You have to inspire your team and become accessible. You have to be ready and become more perceptive. You have to adapt to your environment. I call this Adjustability.