5 ways performance culture might be failing us.

We live in an era that’s obsessed with growth and productivity, at a pace and omnipresence Fordists would never have believed. Our capitalist headlines put wealth on the highest of pedestals and we’re encouraged via our education systems, our workforces, our political frameworks and our social media echo chambers to strive for it at all costs. Because if we’re not the next “rock star” working in a “unicorn”, on the path to being a millionaire with 100,000 followers; If we’re not results-orientated, constantly achieving the next rung on a ladder then who are we? Unsuccessful, surely (please note the sarcasm). 

This idea that we must all be productive and deliver results is an endemic force, an all-consuming mantra that I feel is overwhelming our society. The obsession with success - where success is results, salary, titles, accolades and glory, has been the perfect breeding ground for high intensity performance-based cultures. They’re seen as THE way to work, and dangerously, THE way to lead our lives. 

And I’m not sure I'm comfortable with it.

Let me share a story. 

In my career I’ve had the opportunity to help craft company culture. At one point in time, I was part of a management conversation where we discussed how we could help the team feel more engaged and deliver stretch targets. We needed to motivate them. A story many of you dear readers may be uncomfortably familiar with. 

Loads of sport-based adjectives arose from around the table: “how can we make them winners?”; “if you don’t have the right mindset you’re on the bench, off the team,” “we need star players only,” “we need them to sleep, dream, breathe their results,” “they need to fall in line.” Emotive and dramatic words like obsession, commitment, winning, first place were ubiquitously thrown out there. 

It was the old carrot and stick technique. Reward success and results with titles and promotions (the carrot) have hard conversations - then fire - those that can’t deliver (the stick).

You either show you’re a winner or be told you’re a failure. A hero or a nobody. It’s a zero sum game. 

A classic performative approach. 

That conversation felt like anathema to me. Because I instinctively felt that this wouldn’t be a team that I (arguably a high performer myself) would perform within, never mind want to be part of. Because far from motivating, it made me feel anxious. Rather than aligning a team around a purpose, a common mission in a psychologically safe environment, it felt like we’re creating a Gladiator-style arena, pitching everyone to compete against each other, forcing them to prove something about themselves publicly, for a metaphorical crown.

Now I don’t think it’s a bad thing to set expectations and reward great work. I’m not that binary. It’s the how that I’m questioning in today’s nugget.

Because left unchecked, performative cultures can be extremely dangerous to our sense of community, humanity and our self-worth. Yet they’ve become our default, the poster child of the tech bro world. Although they tend to hide it these days with the trendy misnomer “growth culture.” Growth culture - in its purest form - celebrates failure and incremental success. Yet check one of these companies’ bonus structures, their enforced performance bell curve, or their north star KPIs against which remuneration rewards are assessed, and you’ll often see a contrary story.

So why do I believe performance-based cultures can be dangerous? I’ve listed 5 top of mind concerns, inspired by an amazing episode of Brené Brown 's“Dare to Lead” podcast with Pippa Grange - a sought-after sports psychologist that worked with elite sports teams (including the England football team) and author of the book “Fearing Less”.

1. They generate performance anxiety: permeating performance work cultures (and a performative mindset outside of work) is fear. It’s the fear of rejection, of not being good enough, of not hitting targets, of not being worthy. Worryingly, companies then look to leverage and manipulate this fear to motivate workers to work harder, work more smartly, work more. But MANIPULATING OUR FEAR OF BEING FOUND OUT AS NOT GOOD ENOUGH IS NOT MOTIVATING (I felt that one deserved the caps lock). No one can perform all the time, no one is constantly on and the pressure to be so creates an anxiety state that, even physiologically, makes it harder for us to perform, to remain focused, to retain our conviction and courage. Performance anxiety is now all-pervasive, even outside the work context. We’re worried we’re not loveable enough, not attractive enough, that we’ll be left behind. We don’t look put together like the other parents at the school gates, we don’t have a social media feed like all those influencers we obsessively follow, we don’t cook well enough, work out enough, play with our kids enough, laugh enough, sleep enough, we’re behind on the latest news, podcast, book…the list is endless. And all of it is linked to our obsession with performance, productivity and results. The ultimate outcome is that humans “stop performing and become performative” according to Dr Pippa Grange. Like robots we look to tick the boxes of what we believe (or are told) we should be achieving and leave no space for not being on, no space for being ourselves, for finding out who we are when we rest, when we remove the weight of expectation from our shoulders. We struggle to switch off. There’s a dangerously high mental cost.
2. They kill creativity: what fails in performance cultures is embracing failure. In performance cultures, we’re obedient to a linear definition of success. As Grange states: it’s narrow and conformist, it goes upwards not outwards. Yet it limits our potential, and that of our companies. Because if you can’t make mistakes and fail and learn, how can you truly grow, how can you innovate? Performance culture with its rigid definition of success prevents people from taking risks, because to fail is to lose out, to fail is to potentially be fired, to fail is not seen as learning and growing but rather as not achieving. So we continue to think inside, not outside, the box.
3. They lack team spirit: performance cultures talk to the cult of ego: you need to be better than those around you, deliver more. Success is relative and comparative. It’s that gladiator ring I mentioned before. You don’t co-create with others for a better outcome for all, you try to look superior, more of an expert, more of a master and it stalls collaboration. Trust between team members is lost as back-stabbing, presenteeism, brown-nosing and one-upmanship stride in.
4. Team members lose self-worth and joy. For many high achievers in performance cultures what they produce - their results - become tied to their self worth. If you tie results to your sense of self, then when you mess up (because you inevitably will, we all do) it’s a disaster that you struggle to come back from. When you tie your results to your worth, you lose joy in the doing, gaining joy only in the output. Yet results are just an outcome, they’re not your worth. An accolade on a CV is not who you are. Grange tells a story of a football player that illustrates this point perfectly. His name was Paul and he dreamt of playing football professionally. He had a deep love of the game during childhood, playing freely, showcasing his raw talent. But once he entered the professional environment it shifted - he was prepared for the hard work but not for the meanness and dismissal he experienced (from a particular coach). He felt fear, he felt anxiety, he lost the love of playing the more he was regarded as an asset or resource. When he finally won that long dreamed-for trophy, he felt nothing but emptiness. It was a vapid win. He’d achieved success, but he could no longer feel it. It hadn't suddenly made him feel worthy. To the external eye he was living the dream, whilst internally he was battling a nightmare.
5. Leaders lose their humanity. As per Paul’s story team members become “resources” or “assets” that can be moved around a structure chart, powerpoint deck or removed from a miro board for not “meeting expectations” with little to no consideration of their context, of who they are, who depends on them..their humanity.. Someone’s life story is forever changed when that box on a powerpoint is deleted. 

So how do we break this performance culture and cycle? Grange said the biggest turning point for elite athletes came when they surrendered. They surrendered their control over the result. Their role was to enjoy what’s enfolding in front of them, irrespective of outcome. To not judge themselves on the outcome but the effort put in. 

Chonabi founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, argued in his TED Talk (provocatively titled “the anti-CEO playbook”) that we need to re-think our workplace status quo. We need to focus on creating cultures that treat their employees not in terms of machinery to be optimised and spreadsheets to be filled but as fallible, brilliant and unique humans with dreams, goals, spirit, drive and hope. Cultures that celebrate people, thank them, invest in them, give them a financial stake, value them. Teams where humans are not a cost line or profit driver but are a community coming together to support a goal. He argues  “it's time to put people at the centre of the corporate equation…this is the difference between profit and true wealth.” And this is the way to truly motivate and drive impact, for the company and for the world. 

In my experience the most “successful” teams I’ve worked with - delivering those oh so precious results - have been those who have been inspired to focus on a mission as a collective. There were no carrots or sticks but a deeper calling for the work or project, and a commitment to everyone supporting that calling. We experienced a sense of community, a team spirit, common goals, and a deeply held joy in the process, learning together. We went the extra mile for the purpose and for each other.

The results came accordingly.