If You Want Recovery to Matter, You Need to Measure It

What if your metrics are fuelling burnout, not performance? 

Leaders are under pressure to deliver. But the KPIs they rely on may be pushing themselves and their teams toward exhaustion. CEO turnover is at an all-time high—14% of CEOs exited their roles in early 2025, the highest in decades. Pairing this with recent McKinsey research stating that CEOs struggle most with stakeholder engagement, board relations, and resource allocation with mixed results on effectiveness of managing time and energy. These results suggest leaders may be eventually faced with burnout and poor recovery.  

If we want to lead smarter and drive lasting impact, we need to start measuring what fuels performance. Enter: recovery as a metric. 

Recovery needs to be tracked. This could be through intentional moments of reflection and by pairing traditional KPIs with KBIs (Key Behaviour Indicators) that reveal how the work is being done. Effective mental and physical recovery may lead sustainable energy, mental clarity, and readiness to make sound decisions. It’s about having the capacity to lead through complexity without running yourself or your team into the ground.  

Measure what Matters

The Pitfalls of Traditional KPIs 

Many organizations still rely heavily on outputs (trailing indicators) or inputs (leading indicators) without balancing the two.  

The risk of focusing only on outputs (trailing indicators): 

• Outputs measure what has already happened (e.g., annual revenue, project delivery rates). By the time you see the number, it’s too late to course correct. 

• This can feel too farfetched for some:  big, distant goals without short-term signals. For example, a year-end engagement survey reveals morale is down 30%, but no earlier check-ins flagged the issue in time to address it. 

  
  

The risk of focusing only on inputs (leading indicators): 

• Inputs measure activities you believe will drive results (e.g., meetings booked, % of billable time, number of cold outreaches complete). They can feel gratifying to complete but may not lead to the right outcomes. 

• Over time, this can create a “push harder” culture where busyness is mistaken for progress. For example, sales team hits its meeting quota each month, but conversion rates stagnate. Everyone worked hard, but without the desired result. 

The missing piece: Leaders need intentional reflection points. This is a moment to pause, assess both leading and trailing indicators, and realign if necessary. 

Here are some questions we’ve used that you can build into your review cycle: 

• How are current activities (inputs) actually moving us toward our outcomes (outputs)? 

• What are the early signals (positive or negative) that we need to address? 

• When and where do we need to pause and adjust before the next milestone? 

• How are energy, focus, and team capacity trending alongside performance metrics? 

Balancing both indicator types, with reflection built in, keeps strategy adaptable and execution sustainable. 

Recovery as a performance driver 

Recovery isn’t the absence of work. It’s the presence of reflection, energy, and readiness. When leaders are consistently depleted, creativity, collaboration, and execution all suffer.  

Let’s reframe:  

• Recovery should be proactive, not just a response to things not going to plan.  

• Vacation days ≠ recovery. Ask: “What am I doing on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis to feel recharged?” and mark it down as a KPI. 

• Psychological safety, rest, and reflection are all performance enablers not distractions from the "real" work. For example, Google surveys their teams to ask honest questions like, ‘Is it safe to take risks on this team?,’ or ‘Mistakes are treated as opportunities to learn.’  

As another example, Patagonia is often seen as the gold standard in many respects. When it comes to reflection and recovery, they are an excellent case study. Patagonia’s approach to hiring, child-care support (with an impressive ROI) and deep encouragement of their employees simply spending time outside doing what they love (surf, climb, run – you name it) is how they prioritize reflection and recovery, and it shows in their employee engagement and retention. Turnover in the corporate office is only about four percent, compared to 27 percent at other companies nationally. 

 What Should We Be Measuring Instead? 

KPIs often focus on inputs (e.g. hours logged, meetings booked) or outputs (e.g. deliverables completed). But neither tells the whole story. KBIs (Key Behaviour Indicators) focus on how work gets done. These include signals like boundary-setting, energy levels and peer support. They are leading indicators of team sustainability and performance.  

KPIs help shape culture, start to predict outcomes, and they humanize metrics. By pairing both KPIs and KBIs together, we can tell the whole (and more human) story.  

KPI (The What)	KBI (The How)
Project Delivered On Time	Sustainable and manageable workload through sprint
Strategic Initiative Completed	Time protected for long-term thinking each week
High Engagement & Retention Scores	Day to day feedback and support culture

Recovery is truly the Competitive Advantage 

Recovery is what makes high performance possible. If leaders want to build high-performing, long-lasting teams, they need to start measuring sustainability as seriously as they measure speed or output. Because what gets measured gets prioritized and recovery deserves a seat at the table.  

What are you currently measuring that might be encouraging overwork for yourself or your team? 

If you want more on this topic, tune into our Momentum episode with guests Micaella Riche and Hugh Lawson, Recovery Smarter to Lead Stronger on Spotify, Apple or Youtube.