Why Higher Performance Demands Aren’t the Enemy

In the wake of The Great Pile-On, managers are left wondering how to lead in a corporate environment that never slows down. They’re balancing overwhelmed teams navigating heavier workloads and decreased flexibility with executive leaders focused on keeping the organization afloat.

Does this sound familiar?

Wiley Workplace Intelligence wanted to understand how the trends that led to The Great Pile-On (which we explored last month), tie into overall engagement. Is there a correlation between significantly increased workloads, higher performance demands, and disengagement? And how can managers, many of whom are struggling themselves, navigate this nebulous time with organizational culture and morale intact?

We surveyed 1,477 people to understand how performance demands correlate with engagement, and the results gave a clear directive to organizational leadership for how to navigate this challenging time while keeping your people engaged and encouraging high performance.

The secret is alignment.

Strong Correlation Between Leadership Alignment and Engagement

When leadership alignment is strong, engagement looks and feels different across the organization. Teams move in the same direction, priorities are clearer, and employees understand how their work connects to broader goals.

That clarity builds trust and confidence, which naturally fuels motivation and commitment. When alignment is weaker, energy fragments, focus drifts, and engagement is much harder to sustain. It is made worse when contradictory feedback is given or leaders overstep their boundaries or areas of expertise, creating a culture of micromanagement that can threaten further disengagement.

Leadership Alignment Multiplies Psychological Safety

When leadership behavior consistently reflects stated values and performance systems, employees feel safer speaking up, taking risks, and sharing honest feedback. That consistency builds credibility and as trust grows, so does the willingness to contribute openly without fear of negative consequences. When alignment breaks down, psychological safety erodes, and far fewer employees feel confident enough to fully engage.

Psychological safety is shaped less by how hard organizations push and more by whether leaders operate coherently and transparently with aligned messaging at all levels of leadership.

Manager Capacity Key to Fostering Psychological Safety

We also found a strong connection between manager capacity and psychological safety. When managers are stretched thin, booked in back-to-back meetings with no space to think, for example, it’s easy to respond too quickly or reactively, which can unintentionally shut people down or create environments where it doesn’t feel safe to ask questions or be vulnerable.

When managers have the time, tools, and support they need, they show up more thoughtfully and consistently. That steadiness creates an environment where employees feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and share ideas, which leads to more psychological safety.

Performance Intensity Alone Doesn’t Reduce Engagement

Our research ultimately showed that performance intensity alone does not diminish engagement. It may be easy to assume that higher workloads and greater expectations could cause the kind of overwhelm that leads to disengagement, but we found that engagement is more correlated to alignment, psychological safety, and capacity – all factors that leaders can work to control.

The message is clear: high expectations are not inherently harmful. Misalignment and overload are what destabilize performance and erode the employee experience.

Strategies for Leaders to Maintain Engagement

The data indicates that organizations can take two major steps to improve engagement during times of rapid change while still encouraging high performance.

• Strengthen Alignment
  • Ensure performance systems, incentives, messaging, and values operate coherently with alignment from all levels of leadership.
• Stabilize Managers
  • Managers need time, clarity, and tools to balance performance expectations with employee support. Encourage them to block time on their calendars to increase mental capacity, which improves psychological safety.

With increased alignment and capacity, managers will have the space to support their people in a way that will ensure engagement will outlast the impact of The Great Pile-On.

Wiley’s suite of professional solutions provides a structure and common language to help empower entire organizations with the skills needed to get to the next level. From building better teams with The Five Behaviors^®, and improving understanding to create engaged, collaborative, and adaptive cultures with Everything DiSC^® on Catalyst™, helping you make confident hiring decisions with PXT Select^®, or unlocking the power of leadership at every level with The Leadership Challenge^®, Wiley has innovative solutions that help make the workplace a better place.

Wiley Workplace Intelligence conducts in-depth research on key workplace issues by gathering insights from individual contributors, managers, and leaders. Wiley Workplace Intelligence then analyzes these findings to provide actionable solutions that are shared in our blog.