Chasing unicorns? Expecting constant high performance is not realistic

Companies everywhere dream of “the high performer” – an individual who consistently delivers exceptional results and operates at peak performance, regardless of the context, circumstances, or stressors they’re facing. The unicorn employee who can make a massive impact on the business.

What if that dream is built on a flawed premise? After all (sorry kids), unicorns aren’t real.

At Culture Amp, we recently completed a comprehensive study to understand high performance – how it works, what sustains it, and, most importantly, how companies can build environments that nurture it.

Our findings reinforce three things we all intuitively know but rarely act on:​

• Sustainable high performance is rare.
• High performance is not an inherent trait but a product of supportive environments.
• Humans simply aren’t built for indefinite peak performance.

Despite these intuitive insights, many organizations continue to design performance evaluations, promotions, and hiring practices around the myth of the unicorn high-performer. But this unrealistic expectation holds teams back from their full potential.

Rethinking high performance: The hard truths

What are the biggest flaws in how most companies understand performance?

Let’s start with the belief that there is something innately special about the select group of employees designated as “top performers.” People tend to think of top performers as special, as if high performance is just a part of who they are.

To test that belief, we looked at two dimensions of high performance: recurrent high performance ratings and tenure to the first high performance rating.

First, we found that across six cycles, 11% of employees achieved a high performance rating one time. One in ten employees being unicorns makes sense to us. However, we found that sustaining a high performance rating for more than one cycle was very rare. Only 2% of employees got a high performance rating twice in a row across those three years. That number goes up when we look at non-consecutive cycles. 5% of employees managed to achieve a high performance rating twice, but not consecutively, across three years.

The percentage of employees who received a high performance rating more than two times across those six cycles, however, is 0%. If high performance were a character trait, we would expect that those special unicorn employees would be recognized for their performance more often.

As for our second test on the belief that high performance is a character trait, we found more evidence to the contrary.

When we looked at how long it took for high-performing employees to get their top rating for the first time, we found that high performance takes time to achieve.

In fact, one in four employees didn’t receive their first high performance rating until after 18 months into their role! Not only does this refute the belief that high performance is innate, it also provides a refreshing take on your broader employee base. Remember them?

This finding means your "low" or "average" performers today could become high performers tomorrow – if they’re given the right conditions to grow. Cue the L&D fireworks!

After finding that high performance is not sustainable and that it takes time to be recognized for high performance, we also wanted to know what was happening cycle to cycle. If high performers fall, to what rating do they fall? And what previous rating did high performers rise from?

To test this, we mapped employee performance from cycle to cycle using a Sankey chart. We found that employees cycle in and out of high performance.

The Sankey chart above shows the cyclical nature of performance across all levels. Employees can move from one rating to any other within one cycle. No one is always "on" – nor is anyone always “off.”

Once again, this finding is intuitive. If you’re reading this, you’re human. You know in your bones that peak performance cannot be sustained indefinitely. World-class athletes like LeBron James, Serena Williams, Lionel Messi, and Emma McKeon, know this.

Expecting continuous high performance is unrealistic. And yet, companies across industry and region continue to evaluate employees based on the assumption that performance is a constant, rather than a cycle.

This view not only puts high-performing employees at risk of burnout, it neglects the potential of the rest of the team. Sustained high performance is a collective outcome that happens where organizational strategy, team dynamics, and individual behaviors all converge – and it requires collective effort.

How to stop chasing unicorns and start building high performance

So, how do we disrupt our whole way of thinking about performance? And what do we build in its place?

We’ve created the following checklist to help you make meaningful improvements to your performance process in a way that actually works.

1. Prioritize sustainable performance

Let go of the always-on, perfect employee of your dreams. Start addressing the cyclical nature of performance in your internal communications. Encourage teams to strategically rotate high-intensity roles to avoid burnout and maintain sustained high performance over time.

2. Redefine your high-performance metrics to include healthy rest

Consider incorporating well-being, collaboration, and growth into your performance evaluation criteria, sending a clear message that sustainability and employee health are critical components of success and high performance.

3. Invest in Learning and Development (L&D)

Reverse the divestment trend and signal commitment by allocating budget to L&D initiatives. Offer targeted upskilling programs that propel today’s average performers toward high performance. Highlight these investments to boost morale and signal a genuine commitment to employee growth.

4. Reframe feedback as a developmental tool

Start to talk about feedback as a forward-looking development practice, not just a backward-looking evaluation. Equip managers with tools to give feedback that emphasizes growth, potential, and progress, especially for employees who show promise but haven’t yet reached peak performance.

5. Clarify expectations around high performance

Clarify what high performance actually means at your organization. And go beyond hitting company KPIs. Define how success is measured, including collaboration, innovation, adaptability, and resilience, shifting the focus from short-term results to long-term sustainable contributions.

6. Build psychological safety and encourage innovation

Establish clear guidelines and protections around taking calculated risks. Make it explicit that innovation thrives in environments where employees feel safe to try new ideas, even if they occasionally fail. Emphasize innovation as essential to achieving high performance over time, not just in short-term bursts.

By taking these actions, companies can transition from chasing mythical unicorns to cultivating environments where real, human, sustainable high performance thrives.

Want the full story? Here's what the report covers

This is just a glimpse into some of the findings our research uncovered. In the full report, we tackle questions like:

• What’s the business impact of ignoring performance cycles?
• What are companies with more high-performing employees doing differently?
• How does the experience at work differ across employees of various performance ratings?
• How do companies create environments where more employees can reach peak performance?
• What are high-performing leaders doing differently?

Read the full report here and discover what it really takes to build sustainable high performance at your company.

Learn about the science behind sustained high performance

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