When Good Performance Starts to Cost Too Much

Your results can still look good even when producing them is taking more effort, attention or energy than it used to. That change is worth noticing before performance begins to suffer.

Most of us know when our performance is slipping. We miss a deadline, a client is unhappy, the numbers aren't there, or something simply doesn't get done as well as it should.

What can be harder to notice is when our performance is still good, but it is taking more from us to produce it. The work gets done, the meeting goes well, the customer is taken care of and the problem gets solved. From the outside, everything looks fine, but you know it took more effort than it used to.

Maybe you're spending more time preparing or carrying work around in your head long after the day ends. Maybe you're relying on experience to push through things that used to come more easily. You may even be getting better results, which is exactly what can make the change difficult to notice.

Results don't tell us everything

We tend to judge performance by what gets produced. Did we hit the goal? Did we finish the project? Did we deliver what was expected? Those are important questions because results matter.

There is another question I think deserves just as much attention: What is it taking to produce those results?

Two people can produce the same result under very different conditions. One may have clear priorities, enough time, useful support and room to make decisions. The other may be working around unclear expectations, competing priorities, unnecessary friction or simply too much work.

The result can look exactly the same while the experience of producing it can be very different. And sometimes those two people are actually the same person at different points in time.

Something can change before performance changes

Think about a period when your work felt particularly good. You were productive, you knew what mattered and you had enough challenge to stay interested. Problems still showed up, but you had the capacity to deal with them.

Now think about a time when work felt heavier, even though you may have been performing just as well. What changed?

Maybe the workload increased gradually, your role expanded without anything being taken away, or decisions became harder to make. Maybe you stopped learning and started repeating. Relationships may have changed. Or perhaps nothing dramatic happened at all. The work simply began requiring more of you and returning less.

Changes like these don't always show up in a performance measure, at least not right away.

Strong performers can hide a lot

People who are good at their work are often very good at adapting. They compensate, find another way, work a little longer, use experience to navigate around obstacles or give less attention to something else. And they keep producing.

That ability is valuable, but it can also make changes in the conditions of work harder to see. Performance can remain strong long after the experience of producing it has started to change.

Eventually, you may find yourself wondering why you feel differently about work when, by most conventional measures, things are going well. I think that's a question worth paying attention to.

A wider view of performance

I have become increasingly interested in the difference between performing well and being able to continue performing well.

Performing well tells us something about the results we're producing today. Being able to continue asks us to look more closely at the conditions surrounding those results. How much effort is required? What is helping? What is getting in the way? Are we still learning? Does the work provide enough energy, meaning, connection or possibility to remain worthwhile?

Looking at these things doesn't diminish the importance of results. It gives us a wider view of what may be happening beneath them.

A question worth asking

You don't need to wait until your performance declines to pay attention to your experience of work. Every once in a while, it may be useful to ask yourself:

Is my work getting better, harder, easier—or simply more costly to sustain?

You don't necessarily need to do anything with the answer. Start by noticing what comes to mind and what may have changed.

There may be nothing that needs your attention. But if there is, seeing it while you're still performing well gives you more room to understand what's happening and more choices about what you might do next.