What Actually Drives Impact

I recently came back from a long break. Weeks of walking, thinking, writing rough notes 🚶. What kept coming up, in different forms, was a question I couldn’t shake: what actually drives impact at work?

🖊️ The pen and gravity

In Conscious Business, Fred Kofman gives a simple example. You drop a pen on the floor. What caused it? Most people say: you opened your hand. A more careful observer would add: gravity. And if you keep going, you realize there are even more factors. Air resistance. The weight of the pen. Whether someone bumped your hand.

The point is that any result is the consequence of multiple factors. How much each factor contributes is a correlation problem. And correlation doesn’t imply causation.

🏢 Why this matters at work

Most organizations reward impact. Rightly so, because driving results is what ultimately matters. But the implicit assumption is that impact is a direct consequence of your behaviors. Show the right behaviors, get the right results.

That’s not always true. There are two situations where this breaks down:

  1. You do the right things, but low impact is attributed to your work. External factors worked against you. Market conditions shifted. A dependency fell through. The result doesn’t reflect your effort or skill.

  2. You don’t do the right things, but high impact is attributed to your work. You were in the right place at the right time. The tailwind was strong enough to carry you.

Most people focus on the first scenario. It feels unfair. And it is. But the second one is equally important and rarely discussed.

🔄 What I’m changing

Coming back from the break, I realized I was spending too much energy on the wrong things. Getting caught up in details that weren’t my focus. Trying to do work that should belong to others.

A few things I’m trying instead:

  • 🤝 Relationships over assignments. Instead of finding work for people, help them build direct relationships with the stakeholders who have the problems. The people you know shape the problems you see.

  • 🎯 Results as common ground. The best way to build relationships is to focus on shared results. OKRs aren’t just planning artifacts. They’re alignment tools. When people move toward the same goal, trust forms naturally.

  • ✍️ Writing everything down. If it’s not written, it doesn’t exist. Trying to solve a complex problem without writing is like trying to hold water in your hands. Journaling at work isn’t optional for me anymore.

  • 🔭 Zooming out constantly. One of the most valuable things a senior IC can do is help refocus conversations. Deep focus is necessary sometimes, but stepping back to ask whether you’re working on the most valuable thing is a discipline, not a distraction.

🤔 The question I’m sitting with

If impact is the consequence of multiple factors, and behaviors are just one of them, how should we evaluate performance? Common sense helps. Good managers try to be fair. But the system still rewards outcomes more than process.

I don’t have a clean answer. What I do know is that the most useful thing I can control is being intentional about where I put my energy. Not working more hours, but working with more clarity about what actually matters.