We have a manager who checked all the boxes for GWC™ and loves our Core Values, but they are visibly burning out and their productivity is tanking. How do we diagnose whether this is a capacity issue or deep conative stress?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

When a manager loves your culture and possesses the skills for the job but is still burning out, you are likely dealing with conative stress. This is a quiet productivity killer that traditional performance reviews completely miss.

Conative stress occurs when there is a severe mismatch between an employee's natural way of doing things and the daily expectations of their seat. To diagnose this, you need to look beyond their GWC™ status on your Accountability Chart and measure their conative alignment.

Use the Kolbe A Index to measure their innate problem-solving instincts. Then, have them complete a Kolbe B Index, which measures their own perception of what their job requires of them. Finally, have their supervisor complete a Kolbe C Index, which outlines the supervisor's expectations for that seat.

When you compare these profiles, you will see exactly where the friction lies. If their natural instinct is low Follow Thru but their Kolbe B says they must spend all day building structured processes, they are burning massive amounts of mental energy just to keep up.

Once you identify this conative gap, you can adjust their daily responsibilities or realign the seat expectations. Solving conative stress is how you save a great employee from burnout.