Stretching Performance

How “stretch” impacts performance and how to know if you have it

Not to be confused with some descriptions of “stretch” in the leadership literature, I have defined it as the balance between achievement and inhibition motivation. I have seen from our research that this balance, and how these two motivational drives interact together, is more indicative of high performance.

Stretch can mean many things. One concept of Stretch in the leadership literature is what was proposed in the GE performance culture. It basically means throwing an incredible amount at a senior leader and seeing if they can cope. I’m not a fan of this approach because there are so many things which can and do go wrong, and deeper underlying issues can easily be swept under the carpet and will only raise their ugly head further down the line. In short, it can create sloppy thinking and a focus on performance, which is great, at the expense of key systemic issues, which is critical for long-term sustainable success, even better.

There is another element to stretch, and this is precisely what we have termed it based on our assessments of high performers in different sectors. This is the balance of achievement with inhibition, or achievement motivation with avoidance motivation.

In the article Of Carrots and Sticks I focused on the two motivational types, known in the psychological literature as approach and avoidance motivation. As I noted these are two broad motivation types which are existent in all living creatures but are slightly differently balanced in species and within individuals. Now when we ask leaders what they are, most leaders would automatically class themselves as approach personalities, translating into being achievement focused. But the surprise we had in our first piece of research