Performance Or Wellbeing: Is This The Right Question

Before I became a Chief Wellbeing Officer, I trained in Lean Six Sigma. And something always stood out to me in that world: my colleagues were never just looking for systems and tools. They wanted those systems to actually work. And they knew that meant engaging people, not just optimising processes.

Many leaders have already realised this is the right direction. The question I hear more and more is no longer should we care about people? It is how do we actually do it? And that is exactly the right question. Because for too long, business education sold us a false trade-off: either you take performance seriously, or you take care of your people. Either you optimise for output, or you make space for humanity. It was never true.

I know this from lived experience. As an entrepreneur, as the owner of a business school, and through my studies, where a case on entrepreneurship and strategy made something very clear: when those two disciplines are not in balance, the company does not truly thrive. And every company is made of people. People whose values and ideas should be heard. Motivation is an inner factor. It cannot be created, but it can be easily destroyed when it is not taken care of. Overwhelmed, unhappy people do not produce at their potential. That is not a weakness to manage around. It is a truth to build from. Wellbeing and happiness are not soft topics. They are part of life. And they belong in business strategy.

The organisations I have worked with that truly flourish do something that looks paradoxical from the outside. They take performance and wellbeing more seriously than their competitors, at the same time. They measure carefully. They eliminate waste. They also protect attention, design for psychological safety, and treat their people as adults capable of meaningful work. These two disciplines are not in tension. They are the same discipline.

What we lack is an education that teaches both at once and shows leaders how to put it into practice, not just why it matters.

That is exactly what we are building at HAANA. An institute that refuses the false choice and gives leaders real tools for real change.
The haanaMBA in Human-Centred Management plans to open its first cohort in October 2026. Our corporate Leadership Labs begin running in 2026.

If you lead a team or an organisation and you are ready to stop choosing between performance and people, and start building both, I would love to connect.

Liane Grassi
– Co-Founder at HAANA Institute for Leadership and Wellbeing –
– Entrepreneur and Programme Developer –