More Than the Numbers: On Metrics, Motivation, and the Power of Presence at Work
We love a clean dashboard around here.
There’s something deeply satisfying about a row of green checkmarks or a well-built dashboard that tells you, at a glance, how things are going. Metrics can be grounding in the middle of ambiguity. They help us name what’s working, surface what’s not, and keep the work accountable.
But sometimes, the very systems we build to support our team start quietly shaping them.
We’ve been sitting with this tension lately: how do we measure outcomes without reducing people to them? How do we build a culture that values presence more than performance - especially in a metrics-driven world?
Turns out, the answer isn’t to ditch the dashboards.
It’s to shift how we use them, and what we believe about motivation in the first place.
Photo by Eduardo Drapier
When Metrics Miss the Point
A few months ago, one of our senior leaders noticed something that, at first glance, looked like a red flag. The number of accounts worked had dipped below target for the third week in a row. Historically, this might have triggered a performance conversation. But instead, the manager paused and asked a different question: What’s going on underneath?
What she found wasn’t a team falling behind. It was a team thinking ahead.
They had evaluated their own metrics, noticed a recurring pattern in denials, and dug deeper. What they found wasn’t surprising - but it was preventable. A significant portion of their denied claims were rooted in front-end charge review issues. So instead of continuing to chase errors downstream, they decided to go upstream. They spent a few weeks refining, testing, and expanding their charge review process, knowing full well that, for a little while, it might look like they were doing less.
But what happened next proved they were doing much more.
Within a month of implementing their new process, overall denials dropped. Which meant fewer reworks. Fewer preventable errors. And more time to spend on the kind of account work that really moved the needle.
On paper, their performance dipped.
In reality, their impact grew.
The metrics didn’t capture that part.
But the story did.
Why Motivation Matters More Than Measuremeant
In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink outlines a powerful idea: what truly drives people, especially in complex, thoughtful work, is not pressure or reward. Its purpose, autonomy, and mastery.
In other words, people want to:
Do work that matters
Have the freedom to do it well
Get better at something they care about
Performance metrics often incentivize compliance. But presence - real, meaningful engagement - requires intrinsic motivation. And that can’t be measured in a spreadsheet.
Pink explains that “if-then” rewards (If you meet X, then you get Y) can actually narrow focus and reduce creativity. What motivates sustained performance is the opposite: trust, responsibility, and belief in the work.
“The richest experiences in our lives aren't when we're clamoring for validation but when we're listening to our inner selves.” (Pink, 2009)
At Wayfinder, that rings true.
Some of our most powerful team moments happen off the record. When someone takes a breath and says, “Something feels off with this workflow.” When a teammate slows down to teach, even though it means posting fewer charges that hour. When someone notices a trend before it becomes a problem - and speaks up.
You can’t plot that on a line graph. But it changes everything.
Data Without Presence is Just Noise
Organizational research backs this up. Psychologist Amy Edmondson’s work on psychological safety shows that people perform better when they feel safe to speak up, make mistakes, and think critically. And yet, the more organizations rely on performance metrics as the primary driver of behavior, the less likely people are to tell the truth.
Campbell’s Law warns us: The more a quantitative metric is used for decision-making, the more likely it is to corrupt the process it’s supposed to measure. When we let metrics become the mission, people start optimizing for the number - not the outcome.
So How Do We Lead Differently?
Here’s what we’re practicing at Wayfinder:
1. Use metrics as mirrors, not measuring sticks.
We track key performance indicators, but we pair them with narrative. When we review a report, we don’t ask, Why didn’t you meet the number? We ask, What’s the story here? What are you seeing?
2. Design systems that reinforce autonomy and mastery.
We build dashboards that individuals can filter and sort themselves. We encourage people to review their own trends, reflect on their progress, and decide where to lean in. It’s not about chasing a number, it’s about becoming a craftsperson.
3. Make space for meaning.
We actively invite story-sharing in meetings. Micro-wins. Quiet learnings. The moment you caught something others missed. That’s the kind of presence that shapes culture, and it doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet.
4. Align metrics with mission - not just output.
Instead of asking “How much did you do?”, we ask “How did this move the mission forward?” A smaller number might reflect a smarter, more sustainable choice. And sometimes presence means choosing less, on purpose.
A Culture That Thinks for Itself
The truth is: presence is slower. It’s less flashy. It requires more trust.
But it’s also where the good stuff lives.
It’s where learning happens. It’s where relationships deepen. It’s where people do the kind of work they’re proud of, not just the kind that gets checked off.
At Wayfinder, we’re not rejecting metrics. We’re reimagining their role. We want them to serve the mission - not steer it. We want our people to feel trusted to think, not just pressured to perform.
And we’re learning: when you create a culture that values presence, the performance often takes care of itself.
A Few Questions to Ask Your Team This Week:
What’s one number we’re tracking that needs a story alongside it?
Where might someone on our team be showing up with presence - even if their metrics don’t show it?
What’s one place in our workflow where we could slow down to notice something more meaningful?
Let’s build workplaces that know when to listen beyond the numbers.
Because the metrics worth tracking?
They’re often the ones that begin in a pause;
in a conversation;
in a quiet noticing;
in a choice to care more deeply than the dashboard requires.
Not everything that matters is measurable.
But if we learn to measure what reveals - not just what reports -
we just might create a culture where people feel seen,
not just scored.
Join the Wayfinder Community
Let’s Continue the Conversation
References
Edmondson, A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Pink, D. H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. Riverhead Books.
Campbell, D. T. (1976). Assessing the impact of planned social change. In G. Lyons (Ed.), Social Research and Public Policies: The Dartmouth/OECD Conference (pp. 3–45). Dartmouth College.
Rock, D., Davis, J., & Jones, B. (2014). The problem with performance reviews. Harvard Business Review.
https://hbr.org/2014/10/the-problem-with-performance-reviews
