Incentives are powerful. They shape how people behave, what they prioritize, and how they define success. But sometimes, even the best intentions can create unintended consequences.
A company once discovered that its well-meaning performance goals were leading to distracted driving among employees. On paper, they were rewarding efficiency—quick case handling times, faster customer response. In practice, those same goals pushed people to skip breaks and eat in their cars between appointments.
The result? Employees were multitasking behind the wheel, and the organization was unintentionally rewarding risky behavior.
This is a common—and costly—pattern. When metrics and culture drift out of alignment, people adapt in ways that make sense inside the system, even if those choices create harm elsewhere.
Most organizations treat performance problems as training issues. But in reality, behavior often reflects the environment. When an outcome keeps recurring—whether it’s burnout, miscommunication, or safety lapses—it’s usually a sign that the system is rewarding something other than what leaders intend.
Consider a few common examples of misaligned incentives:
Each of these incentives paints a picture of progress while quietly draining the energy, focus, and trust that real performance depends on.
Each of these outcomes starts with good intentions—but becomes unsustainable when the behavior it encourages contradicts organizational values.
When feedback loops are in place, patterns like these surface faster. They prompt important questions that every leader should be asking:
These aren’t abstract questions—they’re diagnostic ones. They help identify whether culture and systems are reinforcing the outcomes an organization says it wants, or something entirely different.
If a team is stuck in unproductive or risky patterns, the answer isn’t to double down on control. It’s to look at the environment enabling the behavior.
When leaders shift from blaming individuals to examining incentives, real change begins.
Ask yourself:
What are we really incentivizing?
That one question can reveal more about a culture than any survey or performance dashboard ever could.
Healthy cultures don’t just reward results—they reward the right results. Alignment between values and incentives isn’t just good leadership; it’s good risk management.
