Recently, I’ve been working with many businesses undergoing merger and acquisition activity. I’ve encountered people spending more energy credits worrying about their job security than actually doing great work. They’re literally spending work time calculating possible redundancies and planning for potential job loss.
Imagine if they channelled that same energy into excelling at their current role! They’d be far more likely to keep their position and probably find it much more fulfilling. Oh, and the business would be more profitable in the first – keeping the private equity investors happier too.
Life’s too short to spend it planning for worst-case scenarios when that energy could be turning best-case scenarios into reality.
General workplace negativity is another massive driver of cognitive overhead. Think about the energy people could redirect toward achieving great work outcomes instead of feeding into negative cycles.
Many people also carry cognitive overhead from personal worries that don’t warrant the energy credits they’re receiving. While life certainly throws curveballs that deserve attention, many people are spending energy credits on concerns that warrant far less investment.
People will spend way more energy credits than necessary when their psychological capital isn’t where it needs to be. Remember, psychological capital includes optimism, hope, resilience, and self-efficacy – this goes well beyond baseline mental health, which simply means you can hold down a job and handle normal life stresses.
If people are barely meeting baseline mental health (unfortunately the trend for so many these days), they lack the psychological capital elements that help reduce cognitive overhead.
The remote work challenge nobody’s talking about
With people working in different locations more frequently, we’re seeing declining trust and psychological safety, leading to increased negative workplace interactions. This is particularly concerning since negative workplace interactions are now specifically recognised as psychosocial hazards.
Here’s a seemingly small but telling example: if someone looks away during an online meeting for a perfectly valid reason unrelated to the speaker, and relationships aren’t strong enough, the speaker might perceive rudeness. This spirals into unnecessary negativity and wasted energy credits.
When people can’t build relationships in the same physical space, they become more easily offended and potentially see negativity where it doesn’t exist – it’s perceived rather than actual. Unfortunately, it only takes the perception of negative workplace interactions for leaders to find themselves on the wrong side of the psychosocial hazard legislation in Australia.
Some practical strategies to reduce cognitive overhead
The good news? Knowledge is power, and we can absolutely address this challenge. Again, we have so much support to help you, but a few ideas to get you going to help your team invest their energy credits more wisely…
Enhance Communication Clarity: Make expectations, priorities, and processes crystal clear. Ambiguity is one of the biggest drains on energy credits. As I constantly tell workshop participants: remove ambiguity, remove ambiguity, remove ambiguity – and when you’ve done that, go back and remove some more.
Compensate for Relationship Deficits: Recognise that building relationships is harder in the digital world and take deliberate action to bridge this gap. Create structured opportunities for connection beyond formal meetings.
Build Psychological Capital Daily: Help people strengthen their optimism, hope, resilience, and self-efficacy through workplace interactions. Highlight what people do well, celebrate client wins, and acknowledge progress regularly. These aren’t just nice-to-haves – they’re essential investments in reducing cognitive overhead.
Focus on Prevention: Rather than waiting for cognitive overhead to become a problem, proactively create systems and cultures that minimise energy waste from the start.
No time like the present
In today’s challenging landscape, understanding and addressing cognitive overhead isn’t optional – it’s essential for sustainable performance. Your team’s energy credits are precious. Every credit wasted on unnecessary worry, unclear priorities, or negative workplace dynamics is a credit that could have been invested in meaningful work and personal fulfillment.
The businesses that recognise cognitive overhead as a real cost and take action to reduce it will have a significant competitive advantage. Their teams will be more engaged, more productive, and far less likely to burn out.
Ready to optimise your team’s energy investment?
If you’re seeing signs of cognitive overhead in your organisation – whether it’s increased sick leave, declining engagement, or revenue that’s not reaching its potential – it’s time to take action.
Join us at Next Evolution Performance for our 20:20 Live Sessions or jump into our next workshop.
Let’s make room. Not just for more to-do’s.
But for more life.
Of course, if you’d like to find out more about how to improve performance with less effort why not either book a Performance Call or sign up for our next 20/20 session or one of our open workshops here.