WRITTEN BY: AMANDA MACDOUGALL and TIM WINDSOR
Picture this: You’ve hired rockstar employees – overachievers who consistently meet and exceed expectations. They finish their tasks early, take on extra projects, and seem like the ideal team players. But instead of getting recognized, they’re handed a “reward” they never asked for—the work others failed to do. Sound familiar? This toxic management habit is more common than we think, and it’s a surefire way to drive your best talent straight to burnout or the competition.
In this article, we explore how leaders and managers can avoid this pitfall and provide practical strategies for creating a healthier, happier, and more productive team.
The “Gift” No One Wants: More Work
When top-performing employees take on extra work, they aren’t being rewarded—they’re being punished. The hard truth is that lazy leadership often rewards overachievers by dumping extra work on them instead of addressing the performance issues of underachieving team members. Why? Because it’s easier. It’s the path of least resistance.
Leaders sometimes prioritize their image over the well-being of their team. Instead of confronting low performers, they shift the burden onto their top people, thinking they can “handle it.” But they’re really encouraging disengagement, resentment, and, ultimately, turnover.
Why Leaders Choose the Easy Way Out
It’s no secret that tough conversations are hard to have. No one likes to sit down and tell someone they’re not meeting expectations. But the truth is, avoiding these conversations has a cost—both in team morale and in bottom-line performance.
Research from Gallup found that only 20% of employees strongly agree that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work. This statistic shows that most employees are either unengaged or frustrated by how performance management is handled. When high performers see their colleagues skating by without consequence, they’re far more likely to become disengaged themselves.
Worse, burnout is on the rise. According to a study by Deloitte, 77% of workers have experienced burnout at their current job. One of the key factors driving burnout is unfair treatment at work, including inequitable workloads. When leaders fail to address underperformance head-on, they fuel this growing epidemic.
Practical Strategies to Fix the Problem
Leaders need to make some tough but necessary changes to break this destructive cycle. Here’s how:
Have the Hard Conversations Early
Avoiding difficult conversations with underperformers doesn’t make the problem disappear—it makes it bigger. Address performance issues head-on, early, and often. According to research by the Harvard Business Review, 57% of employees say that their managers do not give enough feedback about their performance, and 72% wish they had more corrective feedback.
Use a depersonalized, fact-based approach. Talk about the job requirements and performance metrics rather than the person’s character. This helps remove the emotional charge from the conversation and keeps it focused on improvement rather than blame.
Stop Rewarding Work With More Work
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is assuming that overachievers are happy to do even more. High performers often feel they have no choice but to say “yes” to additional work, even when it pushes them to the brink. Leaders should take a step back and assess whether they’re overloading their top talent at the expense of their mental health and job satisfaction.
High performers need room to grow, not just more work. If they can handle more, invest in their development—give them opportunities to lead, mentor, or innovate. But don’t make them responsible for carrying the weight of the entire team.
Create a Culture of Personal Accountability
Leaders shouldn’t be the only ones “holding people accountable”. Employees should hold themselves accountable, too. Set clear expectations from the start. Every team member should know what’s expected of them and the consequences of not meeting those expectations. This goes beyond simply telling people what to do; it means creating a culture where accountability is part of the team’s DNA.
Research shows that teams with high levels of personal accountability perform better. In a study by Partners in Leadership, teams with a strong culture of accountability were 31% more likely to exceed their goals.
Stop Making Excuses for Low Performers
As much as we like to believe that every employee can be “saved,” there are times when low performance is a sign of deeper issues. Sometimes, they are not the right fit for the role or the organization. In his book Necessary Endings, Dr. Henry Cloud argues that the most challenging but critical leadership decision is recognizing when someone’s time with the organization has ended.
Leaders need to have the courage to make these tough calls. Keeping a low performer on the team because it’s “easier” than letting them go is a cop-out. It drags down the entire team and makes high performers question whether their extra effort is worth it.
Give High Performers the Recognition They Deserve
Recognition matters. A study from O.C. Tanner found that when employees believe their work is recognized, they are 2.7 times more likely to be highly engaged. Recognize your top performers not by giving them more work but by offering meaningful rewards—public recognition, career development opportunities, or simply the freedom to work on projects that excite them.
The True Cost of Inaction
The cost of not addressing this issue is steep. When leaders continuously overburden their top performers and allow low performers to skate by, it creates a toxic environment where no one wins. Productivity plummets, morale declines, and your best employees eventually leave.
In fact, according to the Work Institute, the average cost of replacing an employee is about 33% of their annual salary. When you lose a top performer due to burnout or frustration, the cost isn’t just financial—it’s also the loss of institutional knowledge, team cohesion, and leadership within the organization.
THE BOTTOM LINE
Leaders who avoid tough conversations, reward high performers with more work, and make excuses for low performers set themselves and their teams up for failure. It’s time to break this cycle of destruction.
Stop punishing your best employees by making them do the work of others. Start having the conversations that matter, hold everyone accountable, and give your high performers the recognition they deserve—not more tasks. Only then will you create a team that thrives rather than one that merely survives.
