Aurea Mediocritas

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Are You Sprinting the Marathon? 

Michail, a middle manager from Eastern Europe, had recently joined a prestigious project-based German company. His new project management role in engineering came with a broader range of responsibilities and exposure to an extensive group of stakeholders. For someone like Michail, who had always prided himself on exceeding expectations, the performance review he received was a mixture of praise and confusion. His boss commended his efforts and he was very happy and proud of the bonus he received based on his project results. However, after the performance feedback discussion with the Project Director he was left with a perplexing recommendation: learn to operate at 85% of your capacity rather than constantly pushing at 110%.

To Michail, this was an unexpected blow. How could performing less than his full capacity be the key to success in this high-performing environment? His immediate reaction was one of frustration, bordering on disbelief. "Are my colleagues envious of my achievements?" he asked himself. His mind spiralled into a narrative where his manager didn’t understand how to get the most out of a team, and his co-workers were being overpaid compared to him, considering his team's superior performance.

Michail had mastered the art of efficiency, leading his team to deliver more than other comparable teams. So, why now, when he felt he was just beginning to hit his stride, was he being asked to slow down?

The company offered Michail the opportunity to work with an executive coach to help him align with the expected performance standards of the organization. However, instead of taking this as a chance for personal growth, Michail saw it as an insult, his frustration deepening. He was determined to prove that he could push his team even harder, certain that more effort was the key to proving his manager wrong.

I am the coach in this story, and I am pleased to share it with Michail's consent. Although Michail is a fictional name, the story is real. Once he recognized the opportunity for growth, he generously allowed me to share his growth journey with all of you.

If you want to skip the rest and pick only the cherry on the cake, here are 20 leadership traits essential for performant leadership when manifested according to the  Aurea Mediocritas principle, and how these traits manifest when displayed in excess or deficit. All of you who chose to read further will have the same opportunity later in the article.

Michail’s situation is not unique. In environments that prize efficiency and excellence, many managers fall into the trap of thinking that more is always better. Working harder, taking on additional tasks, and pushing the team beyond limits can seem like the ultimate formula for success. But there’s a critical misunderstanding here; one that the concept of Aurea Mediocritas (The Golden Mean) can help unravel.

The idea behind Aurea Mediocritas - The Golden Mean - is rooted in the philosophy of moderation. It suggests that true excellence doesn’t come from extreme behaviour but from finding the right balance. In Michail’s case, his company's feedback was a call to embrace this balance — to perform well, yes, but sustainably.

Often, high-achieving managers push their limits for short-term wins, but the long-term consequences can be devastating. They try to sprint the entire marathon. Burnout, both personal and within the team, can erode performance and morale. Worse, this "all or nothing" approach can create a culture of pressure where being "ON" all the time becomes an expectation rather than an exception. Teams can start resenting their leader, feeling they are not only being pushed too hard but are undervalued.

Michail needed to learn that running at 85% wasn’t about underperformance. It was about optimizing performance in a way that was consistent, repeatable, and allowed space for innovation and well-being. By operating at a steady, sustainable pace, Michail could preserve his team's energy and foster a culture where creativity and problem-solving could thrive, rather than a treadmill of perpetual overwork.

The Misconception: Aurea Mediocritas as Mediocrity

One of the biggest challenges in embracing Aurea Mediocritas is the misconception that operating at this balanced level equates to mediocrity. Many high-achieving professionals believe that if they aren't pushing themselves to the extreme, they’re settling for less: less performance, less knowledge, less success. The term "mediocrity" has become synonymous with being average or substandard, something that feels uninspiring, boring, or undesirable in a competitive world.

However, Aurea Mediocritas is not about underachievement or complacency. It’s about sustainable excellence. The Golden Mean encourages finding the optimal point between overexertion and underperformance, where the quality of work is high, but the path to success is sustainable and fulfilling. It’s about working smarter, not harder, knowing when to push forward and when to step back to maintain balance.

Operating at this level doesn’t mean doing less; it means doing what’s necessary to achieve consistent, repeatable success without burning out. It’s the difference between sprinting a marathon and pacing yourself to reach the finish line in top condition. Far from being boring or substandard, this approach allows leaders and their teams to perform at their best over the long haul, nurturing creativity, innovation, and well-being along the way.

The true power of Aurea Mediocritas lies in knowing that excellence isn’t about always going to extremes, but it's about understanding the value of balance and acting accordingly. It’s a choice to pursue a smarter, more effective path to sustained success.

10 Examples of Leadership Beyond the Golden Mean - The High Cost of Extremes

Many of us have experienced the impact of delivering outside the Golden Mean of performance, particularly early in our careers when we feel the need to prove our abilities. In these moments, we push ourselves to demonstrate our worth to colleagues, peers, or senior management to secure career progression. This pressure often drives new leaders—whether managers, coordinators, or experts—to operate outside the Golden Mean, leading to the following behaviours:

1. Micromanaging Every Detail

A senior manager feels compelled to control every small decision, believing the team won’t perform well without their constant oversight. This undermines team trust and autonomy, stifles innovation, and eventually leads to a decline in performance as team members feel disempowered. Meanwhile, the manager suffers from burnout due to overexertion.

2. Relentless Work Hours and Unrealistic Deadlines

Pushing the team to work late nights and weekends, a manager assumes that more hours equate to better results. However, this unsustainable pace leads to burnout, high stress, and turnover. Over time, the quality of work declines, as employees struggle to maintain energy levels under constant pressure.

3. Chasing Every New Opportunity

A manager is eager to say "yes" to every new initiative, believing that rejecting opportunities could hinder success. This lack of focus spreads resources too thin, leading to poorly executed projects and missed deadlines. The team becomes confused about priorities, and overall performance suffers.

4. Perfectionism and Inability to Delegate

Obsessed with perfection, a manager insists on reviewing every detail of each task, which creates bottlenecks and delays. Team members lose motivation as they are denied opportunities to grow and take ownership of projects. The result is slower organizational progress, where perfectionism outweighs efficiency.

5. Over-Competing with Colleagues

A hyper-competitive manager is so focused on outperforming peers that they take on more than they might handle, working in isolation from the team. Instead of collaborating, they hoard information to maintain an edge. This behaviour creates a toxic environment, eroding trust and teamwork, and ultimately harming individual and organizational performance.

In these scenarios, the lack of balance (Aurea Mediocritas) results in diminished success over time. Pushing to extremes can harm both the manager and the team, proving that a moderate, balanced approach is often the key to long-term fulfilment and effectiveness.

A seasoned leader can identify these behaviours and mentor or coach their direct reports, helping them strike a better balance. However, this is only possible if the senior leader has successfully navigated these challenges and learned to work effectively, achieving high impact without burning out or demoralizing the team.

But what happens when someone is promoted to a senior position before learning these lessons? This situation is common and often arises because a person's capacity for immense effort is mistaken for long-term performance. The real question is: are the results sustainable, or is the balance disturbed, risking the well-being of the team and the organization's success?

Let’s explore five long-term signs that indicate C-level executives are failing to uphold Aurea Mediocritas in their leadership:

1. Overextending the Company’s Growth Ambitions

A CEO aggressively pursues expansion, entering new markets and making acquisitions without thorough due diligence. This unchecked growth strains the organisational resources, dilutes the brand, and/or creates operational inefficiencies. Over time, financial instability and a weakened market position emerge as growth outpaces sustainability.

2. Focusing Exclusively on Short-Term Financial Gains

A CFO is fixated on hitting quarterly targets, cutting costs, and delaying investments in innovation and employee development. While short-term profits rise, the company’s long-term competitiveness erodes as key talent departs, and innovation stalls. The narrow financial focus leaves the company vulnerable to future disruptions.

3. Top-Down Leadership with No Delegation

A COO centralizes decision-making, believing their experience alone can guide the company. This refusal to delegate stifles growth and disengages mid-level executives. As a result, the company’s leadership pipeline weakens, leaving no plan for succession or continued innovation.

4. Overinvestment in Emerging Technologies

Without a solid plan, a VP of Business Development invests heavily in every emerging tech trend without aligning it with the company’s strategy. This leads to wasted resources, technical inefficiencies, and challenges in integration, leaving the company struggling to maintain its competitive edge.

5. Neglecting Company Culture in Favor of Business Results

A CHRO is so focused on implementing strict performance metrics to drive productivity that they neglect the company culture. Over time, employee engagement and morale decline, leading to a loss of top talent. The organization's reputation suffers, and overall productivity dwindles as the human element is sacrificed for KPIs.

In these examples, leadership operating outside the Golden Mean creates long-term imbalances that hinder both organizational performance and sustainability. Balance, foresight, and moderation are essential, even at the highest levels of leadership.

Why Aurea Mediocritas is Critical for Leadership

As leaders, it’s easy to believe that more effort will always translate into more results. But that belief can often backfire. In the corporate world, the idea of ‘balance’ isn’t just a soft skill but a strategic advantage. Here’s why:

Sustainability Over Burnout: Consistently operating at maximum capacity leads to burnout. A leader who embraces moderation ensures that their team has the energy and motivation to perform at a high level over the long term.

Fostering Trust and Autonomy: Leaders like Michail can learn that sometimes, pulling back allows team members to step up, taking initiative and ownership. Micromanaging or pushing a team too hard can diminish trust and autonomy.

Creating Space for Innovation: Innovation thrives when there is mental space to think creatively. However, teams that are consistently overworked lack the capacity for problem-solving or thinking outside the box. Without this space, conflicts often arise, and the team can become divided into opposing groups. These groups are labelled differently depending on perspective: "the lazy and the hardworking", "the interested and the detached", "the performers and the underperformers", and so on. Maintaining balance is crucial, as it creates the necessary room for this key aspect of business success.

Perception and Collaboration: Overachieving can sometimes isolate leaders from their peers. Michail’s colleagues may have viewed his relentless pace as uncollaborative or even as a threat. Finding a middle ground promotes a more harmonious and collaborative work environment.

From Frustration to Fulfillment

I am certain this story resonates with many managers or professionals, because it speaks to a common struggle in leadership: finding the balance between drive and moderation. It resonated with how the younger version of me acted when I entered for the first time senior management. 

By embracing the philosophy of Aurea Mediocritas, leaders can unlock new levels of effectiveness and foster healthier, more innovative teams. Read here about the 20 leadership traits that are essential for performant leadership when manifested according to the Aurea Mediocritas principle, and how these traits manifest when they are displayed in excess or deficit!

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For Michail, or any other manager following a coaching program, the journey to Aurea Mediocritas would mean reassessing their leadership philosophy. Michail needed to understand that his role wasn’t just about driving results, it was about fostering an environment where his team could evolve and live a balanced life, where work was just one aspect of fulfilment. His challenge was no longer proving that he could give 110%, but demonstrating the wisdom to recognize that operating at 85% was often the more effective and sustainable choice.

In embracing the Golden Mean, Michail could transform from a frustrated, overachieving manager into a balanced leader who understood the value of moderation. By striving for less, he could ultimately achieve more—not just in terms of productivity, but in creating a thriving, motivated, and sustainable team.

As leaders, it’s essential to remember that sometimes less really is more. When we relinquish the extremes, we allow for a greater sense of balance—where performance thrives, teams are empowered, and long-term success becomes achievable. Aurea Mediocritas is not about limiting potential, but about unlocking it by cultivating a healthy, thoughtful approach to leadership. By finding that balance, leaders don’t just achieve results. They build organizations that are resilient, adaptable, and human-centric, where people can succeed without sacrificing their well-being.

Once again, thank you, Michail, for allowing me to share your story. I also want to acknowledge the remarkable transformation you've achieved and congratulate you on not only making this shift within yourself but also bringing it into your workplace. Your growth has unlocked numerous positive outcomes for your team, your organization, and your project’s client.

Until next time, keep thriving!

Alina Florea

Your Management Performance Coach 

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Summary:

My client, Michail, an ambitious middle manager, was shocked when his boss recommended he operate at 85% capacity instead of constantly pushing at 110%. Used to overachieving, he initially viewed this feedback as a lack of understanding and felt compelled to prove his worth.

However, embracing Aurea Mediocritas—the Golden Mean—helped Michail recognize the value of sustainable performance. Operating at a balanced pace allowed him to avoid burnout while fostering a healthier environment for his team, encouraging creativity and long-term success.

The Golden Mean doesn’t mean settling for mediocrity or complacency; it’s about optimizing performance without sacrificing well-being. Michail’s story illustrates how finding this balance can transform not just individual growth, but also positively impact the entire organization.