Performance instead of feel-good culture is the new company motto.

“Performance instead of feel-good culture”—this is how HANDELSZEITUNG currently describes the shift in many companies. Nestlé, UBS, Sulzer, and ABB are once again demanding more focus on results, speed, and clarity.

At first glance, that sounds right.

Performance is the backbone of every organization. Without a willingness to perform, focus, and accountability, no company will be successful in the long run.

And yes, it’s true: many organizations have become a bit too comfortable in recent years. Too many meetings, too little focus, too much caution, and too little courage.

But there is a big difference between a true performance culture and a culture of pressure.

Pressure can be a powerful motivator. In the short term, it can activate new energy and reignite systems that were running on low.
But pressure cannot be a long-term strategy. A high-performance culture does not emerge when people are afraid. It does not arise through increased control. Those who focus only on short-term results ultimately exhaust the very resources that make long-term performance possible.

When leadership stops hiding behind feel-good initiatives, that’s a good thing.

But if it falls back into old reflexes of control, pressure, and fear, it becomes dangerous—more of the same, in the hope that things will suddenly change.
That’s not high performance—that’s just louder.

The best teams—in sports as well as in business—are not defined by a constant fear of failure, but by a shared passion for excellence.

Do you really believe that a football player who is afraid for his spot will deliver his best performance on the weekend?

I understand the impulse of many CEOs to introduce clear performance principles in times of economic uncertainty.

But the difference between a true performance culture and a return to a culture of fear is razor-thin. It feels as if the pendulum has swung too far in one direction—and now, in trying to correct it, it’s swinging too far in the other.

In the end, the goal is not for people to “run because they have to,” but to “run because they want to.”