What's Getting Between You and Your Potential at Work?

We often assume better performance requires more effort, knowledge or skill. But sometimes the greater opportunity lies in recognizing what is preventing us from using the capability we already have.

When we want to improve our performance at work, we usually think about what we need to add.

More knowledge. Better skills. Greater effort. More experience. Perhaps a new tool or a different way of approaching the work.

Those things can certainly help. But there is another possibility worth considering.

What if some of the capability we need is already there, but something is getting in the way of using it?

Potential and performance aren't the same thing

Tim Gallwey, who developed the Inner Game approach, introduced a simple equation:

Performance = Potential − Interference

It's a useful way of thinking about why our performance doesn't always reflect what we're capable of doing.

We may have the knowledge, experience and ability to handle a situation, yet find ourselves performing below what we know is possible.

Gallwey's work draws particular attention to the internal interference that can disrupt our natural ability to learn and perform. Self-judgment, doubt, fear and overthinking can occupy attention that might otherwise be available for the task itself.

But our experience of work is also shaped by conditions outside us. Understanding both can give us a more complete picture of what may be limiting our contribution.

The interference we create ourselves

Think about preparing to speak in an important meeting.

You know the subject. You've thought through your position. You have something useful to contribute.

But as the conversation approaches the point where you might speak, another conversation begins in your head.

Will this sound foolish? What if someone challenges me? Have I thought this through enough? Maybe I should wait until I'm more certain.

By the time you've finished considering all of that, the meeting has moved on.

Nothing about your underlying knowledge or ability changed. But your attention was divided between participating in the meeting and evaluating yourself as a participant.

Similar interference can appear when we give a presentation, make a difficult decision, learn something unfamiliar or have a conversation that matters to us.

We may become so concerned with getting something right that we make it harder to do what we already know how to do.

The interference built into the work

Now consider a different situation.

You have a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished and the ability to do it well. But priorities keep changing. Information arrives late. Decisions require approvals from several people. Meetings interrupt the time needed for concentrated work.

You spend much of the day coordinating, clarifying and responding rather than doing the work you intended to do.

This is a different kind of interference.

The difficulty isn't necessarily coming from self-doubt or overthinking. It may be coming from how the work is organized, the availability of resources, unclear expectations or dependencies on other people.

These conditions can prevent capable people from contributing as effectively as they otherwise might.

And because the work still gets done, at least much of the time, the interference can become accepted as a normal part of the job.

Sometimes the two reinforce each other

Internal and external interference don't always operate independently.

Unclear priorities can lead to second-guessing. A manager who frequently changes direction may leave people hesitant to make decisions. Repeated interruptions can make it harder to regain concentration, which can create frustration about our own ability to focus.

External conditions can influence what happens internally, just as our internal responses can affect how we deal with those conditions.

Consider someone who hesitates to make a decision. Is the hesitation coming from a lack of confidence? Are the decision rights unclear? Has the person previously been criticized for acting independently? Or is some combination of those factors at work?

The distinction matters because the appropriate response depends on what is actually happening.

Encouraging someone to be more confident may accomplish very little if they genuinely lack the authority to act. Changing a process may help, but it may not address the person's habit of second-guessing every decision.

We don't have equal control over every source of interference

One reason to distinguish internal and external interference is that they offer different opportunities for action.

We may be able to notice when self-judgment is taking attention away from the work. We can become more aware of assumptions we're making, recognize when we're overthinking and experiment with directing our attention toward what is actually happening.

External interference can be more complicated.

We may be able to clarify an expectation, renegotiate a deadline, improve a handoff or initiate a conversation about competing priorities. Other conditions may require decisions from someone else, and some may be beyond our immediate influence.

Recognizing interference doesn't mean we can eliminate all of it.

It does help us distinguish what we might change ourselves, what we may need to address with others and what we have to account for in the circumstances we're working within.

More effort isn't always the answer

When performance becomes difficult, increasing effort is an understandable response.

We work longer, prepare more carefully, check things repeatedly or try to push through the obstacles in front of us.

Sometimes that extra effort is necessary. But it can also allow interference to remain in place.

If a task requires two hours of concentrated attention but our environment rarely allows more than fifteen uninterrupted minutes, trying harder to concentrate may have limited value.

If we're already capable of making a decision but keep revisiting it because we're afraid of being wrong, gathering still more information may not help.

In both situations, the question shifts from how much more we can do to what is making the work harder than it needs to be.

Notice what is getting in the way

We can't assume that every performance gap is caused by interference. Sometimes we genuinely need more knowledge, practice, resources or experience.

But before automatically adding more effort or seeking another skill, it may be useful to look at what is already present.

Think about a part of your work where you believe you're capable of contributing more effectively than you currently are.

What tends to get in the way?

Is it something happening internally, such as doubt, self-judgment, distraction or the need to get everything exactly right?

Is it something in the work environment, such as competing priorities, unclear expectations, unnecessary complexity or limited authority?

Could both be contributing?

What is getting between the capability I have and the contribution I'm able to make?

That question may reveal opportunities to improve performance that adding another skill or working harder would never uncover.

Sometimes making better use of our potential begins with understanding what's interfering with it.