Journals To Boardrooms

The most expensive work happening in your organization right now may be the work that looks like work but produces nothing. Research calls it performative productivity. Most performance management systems never catch it.

The personality research is fairly clear: people who rise to leadership tend to score lower on emotional instability and higher on goal-persistence. Not every organization selects for this. But the data suggests maybe they should.

A meta-analysis of 128 controlled studies found that tangible recognition rewards consistently undermine the intrinsic motivation of the people receiving them. Most organizations have spent years building exactly the wrong system.