High Performance Has a Cost That Doesn't Show Up in Your Results
The more senior I became, the more I looked like I had it together.
Strong results. A growing team. The kind of trajectory that reads well on a CV.
But something wasn't adding up.
I was working to my limits — and quietly, the returns on that effort were diminishing. More hours, more meetings, more output. But less clarity. Less satisfaction. A rising internal cost that didn't show up anywhere anyone could see.
The moment it shifted was surprisingly small.
I deliberately chose not to attend a set of meetings one week. Not because I was overwhelmed, but because I made a deliberate choice to spend that time on something more strategic instead.
I expected to miss something. I didn't.
What I found instead was more focus, better results, and — for the first time in a while — a genuine sense that I was directing my energy rather than just spending it.
That became the question I couldn't stop asking: what is the return I'm actually generating from the energy I invest?
Not just time. Not just effort. But the full weight of what high performance costs — the focus, the emotional load, the decisions about what not to do.
I call it Return on Energy. ROE.
It's the lens I use in my coaching work. And three weeks ago I started writing about it in a newsletter called The ROE Letter — for high performers who are producing strong results and quietly wondering whether the cost is sustainable.
Three letters in. If this is the question you've been carrying, subscribe and read them.
Where are you leaking return right now — and do you know it?
https://substack.com/@charmianlong