High Performance with Well-being: Insights for Leaders

Balancing high performance and well-being is a crucial leadership challenge. As leaders, we are responsible for driving results while maintaining a culture of sustainability and resilience. High performance without attention to well-being leads to burnout, while prioritizing well-being without focus on results can reduce competitiveness. To create lasting success, it is essential to integrate both. Here are five key insights and strategies I’ve found valuable in achieving this balance:

1. Prioritize Clarity of Purpose

Purpose-driven work fosters engagement and drives performance. When teams understand why their work matters, their motivation and commitment to results increase. Clear communication of the organization’s purpose aligns employees with broader goals and provides a sense of fulfillment that prevents burnout.

2. Foster Psychological Safety

High-performing teams excel when members feel safe to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and admit mistakes. As leaders, we must create an environment of psychological safety by encouraging open dialogue and being receptive to diverse perspectives. This culture fuels innovation and resilience. However, full psychological safety is a myth—safety is deeply personal and varies from person to person. What we can do, though, is make our workplaces safe enough. Safe enough for people to take risks, voice their opinions, and know that their contributions are valued. It’s about building trust and creating a space where courage can emerge.

3. Embrace Rest and Role Model it

Rest and recovery are essential for maintaining high performance over the long term. Encourage your team to take breaks, embrace flexible work schedules, and prioritize mental recovery. Leading by example—whether through vacation or daily micro-recoveries—reinforces that well-being is non-negotiable for sustained success.

4. Commit to Continuous Learning

Teams that continually learn are adaptable and resilient. Encourage both professional development and personal growth, whether through training programs or wellness practices like mindfulness. Skills and resilience go hand-in-hand, building the foundation for both individual and collective high performance.

5. Measure Beyond Metrics

Success should be measured not just by KPIs but also by well-being indicators like engagement, work-life balance, and employee satisfaction. When setting ambitious, breakthrough goals, it's equally important to track progress through smaller milestones. These progress metrics keep motivation high, giving teams a sense of accomplishment along the way. Science tells us that every time we hit a goal, big or small, we get a dopamine boost, which keeps us energized and focused. So if your end goal is bold and far-reaching, be sure to set smaller, achievable milestones to celebrate along the way. This holistic view ensures that your team thrives and stays motivated, even when the journey is long.

Join the Conversation: 5-Part Series on High Performance with Well-being

At our organization, we’ve been delving deep and taking a fresh view and experiments into what drives both high performance and well-being for the last 15 months. In an upcoming five-part series, I’ll be sharing our discoveries and insights, and I’m inviting my team to weigh in as well. Together, we’ll explore actionable strategies to maintain high-performance cultures without sacrificing our people’s well-being. Stay tuned for practical takeaways that help us all thrive, not just survive.

By embedding well-being into the very fabric of performance, we don’t just create success—we make it sustainable.