3 managerial mistakes that kill performance
October 7th 2025
by Julie Sané-Pezet
Founder at Lume Impact
“Performance” is a big word in the corporate world and an every day challenge for startups with limited resources.
It’s in everyone’s mouth on social media.
It’s in your inbox where Alex from I’m-gonna-change-your-life is promising you that this new “groundbreaking saas-AI-powered-automated tool” will multiply results by 300% from day 2.
It’s on every manager’s agenda at the beginning of the month because no one likes to lose money over inexistant results.
…And it’s inevitably in my mouth because “impact” and “performance” are two sides of the same coin.
So let me share 3 managerial mistakes that kill your performance on a daily basis and can easily be fixed - the last one will surprise you.
Preferring trends over ends
We love easy fixes, we really do. That’s probably why you kept reading and I get it - I’m the same. I’m constantly tempted by pills and potions that will turn me into the best version of myself in a few months with no real change to my routine. At work, a challenge arises and the instinct is always the same: find a new tool.
Since ChatGPT launched, I’ve been amazed by how many companies are pushing AI on employees simply because it’s “the way forward.”
Take this employee I spoke to - we’ll call them Oli - already stretched, working weekends and now expected to find extra time to “play around” with an AI assistant. Elsewhere, teams overwhelmed by endless softwares watch as consultants are brought in to untangle the mess.
Does it mean we should all stay at the age of pens and paper? No, but it surely means tools are most effective when they come last, after we’ve understood the actual problem. No AI assistant or project management app will ever replace a deep understanding of your organisation’s needs. If you don’t get where the problem really comes from, adding friction probably won’t fix it.
2. Staying stuck in short-term vision
Let’s come back to Oli for a bit.
Amongst the many reasons why they were unhappy at work, Oli mentioned “the politics” at play. According to them, most strategic decisions would be sidetracked by managers’ personal ambitions. In an unstable economic context where the company was struggling, managers had resorted to thinking short-term in their own interest.
They would systematically prefer a quick ROI they could claim over a longer term strategic change that would advance the whole company.
They felt the need to protect themselves from layoffs while also prioritising their 2-3 year personal career plans over the company's growth.
Result: the company was running in the wall by lack of concrete strategic shifts and the satisfactory quick wins were getting harder and harder to get leading to more and more lay offs.
By that point everyone felt that being a team player was useless so there was no candidate to break the cycle.
But what if they could have created one?
3. Not rewarding risk
Believe it or not, risk is the way forward. Yet, we spend an incredible amount of time trying to avoid it. We hire risk managers, we conduct evaluations and we do everything in our power to avoid wasting resources.
Wasted resources systematically rhyme with failure and failure is a shameful word. Funnily enough, employees are encouraged to onboard on a growth journey that will take them out of their comfort zone but this self actualization should only translate into positive results at work.
Organisations, like people, grow by learning and you can only learn if you’ve failed.
→ To speak a new language you have to make a fool of yourself a few times.
→ To ride a bike you need to sacrifice a few jeans and your dignity.
But the gains of these skills are massive. When you think about it, Youtube is a failed dating platform.
We praise startups' agility but we forget that their resilience and competitiveness comes from having no choice but to embrace risk taking. Of course, big organisations have more to lose but this doesn’t mean they can’t play around with ideas. For example:
If you invest in people, go all the way and support risk takers. Reward people who have ideas and test them at minimal cost and scale. Some will tank but some will change your organisation.
Don’t underestimate psychological safety: if people feel you have their back they will go the extra mile to support your vision.
Change your team’s KPIs: stop staring exclusively at financial ROI and champion learning, new ideas, prototype, transversal initiatives. Technically, if nothing changes… nothing changes. So, embed change and agility in your processes and culture.
If you want more concrete and personalised tools to improve your performance and help talent blossom in your team, reach out! I would love to explore how to support you within your budget and at your pace.