You finally did it. You’re the "go-to" person. When a client blows up, the boss calls you. When a spreadsheet breaks, you’re the one who fixes it. It feels great for about five minutes. Then, you realize your reward for being efficient is just... more work. Way more work. This is the curse of competence, and honestly, it’s one of the most quiet, career-killing traps in modern business.
It’s a weird paradox. We’re taught from kindergarten that doing a good job leads to success. But in many corporate structures, being highly competent acts as a magnet for everyone else’s unfinished business. You become the path of least resistance. Managers, often stressed and looking for a win, stop delegating to the people who need to learn and start dumping everything on the person who "just gets it done." That person is you.
What exactly is the curse of competence?
Basically, it’s the phenomenon where your high performance leads to increased expectations without a corresponding increase in resources, pay, or authority. You’re basically being punished for your own excellence. It’s not just a "feeling." Researchers have actually looked into this.
A 2015 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that people with high self-control (the "competent" ones) are consistently assigned more work by their peers and supervisors. Why? Because it’s easier. Managers rely on them because they know the task won’t fail. But the study also highlighted something darker: the managers often didn't realize how much extra effort these high-performers were putting in. They just assumed it was "easy" for them.
It's a recipe for burnout. You start to resent your colleagues who are lounging in the breakroom while you’re pulling a 12-hour shift because you’re the only one who knows how to run the SQL query.
The hidden tax on high-performers
Think about the "Competence Tax." It's an invisible levy on your time. If you’re 20% faster than your peers, you don’t get 20% more time to rest or innovate. You get 20% more of someone else’s mundane tasks.
Over time, this creates a skill plateau. You’re so busy doing the "doing" that you don't have time for the "thinking." While you're busy fixing the printer or debugging a junior dev's code, you aren't networking, learning new high-level skills, or positioning yourself for a leadership role. You’ve become too valuable in your current position to be promoted out of it.
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Liz Wiseman, author of Multipliers, talks about how "diminishers" (bad leaders) drain intelligence from their teams. But even "accidental diminishers" can trigger the curse of competence. They lean on their "stars" so heavily that those stars eventually burn out or leave.
Why managers can't stop themselves
Let’s be real: management is hard. If a manager has a deadline on Friday, they aren't going to give the task to the guy who messed up the last three projects. They’re going to give it to the person who has a 100% success rate.
It’s a short-term win for the company but a long-term disaster.
- The competent person feels exploited.
- The incompetent person never learns because they never face consequences.
- The team’s "bus factor" (how many people need to be hit by a bus before the project fails) drops to one.
When the most competent person finally quits—and they will—the entire department collapses like a house of cards.
Signs you're suffering from the curse of competence
It usually starts small. Maybe you’re asked to "just take a quick look" at a slide deck. Then, you’re suddenly the permanent editor for the entire department.
If you find yourself saying things like "It's just faster if I do it myself," you're already in the trap. You've stopped being a collaborator and started being a bottleneck for your own sanity. You’re likely working late not because your own work is late, but because you’re finishing the "critical" tasks that were supposedly someone else’s responsibility.
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Another red flag? Your performance reviews are glowing, but your "development goals" are non-existent. If your boss says, "We honestly don't know what we'd do without you," that’s not always a compliment. It might be a warning that they’ve decided to keep you exactly where you are forever.
Breaking the cycle without looking like a jerk
You can't just stop being good at your job. That's bad advice. But you can start being "strategically unavailable."
You have to learn the art of the "Positive No." When a new task that isn't yours lands on your desk, you don't say "I won't do that." You say, "I can certainly help with that. Which of my current high-priority projects should I deprioritize to make room for it?" This forces the manager to see the trade-off. It makes the "Competence Tax" visible.
The role of "learned helplessness" in others
Sometimes, your competence actually creates incompetence in others. It's a weird psychological loop. If your coworkers know you'll fix their mistakes, they stop trying to be perfect. Why bother double-checking the data when "Sarah will catch it anyway"?
By being too competent, you've removed the feedback loop that helps people grow. In this sense, your excellence is actually holding the team back. To fix this, you have to let things fail. Small failures. Let a non-critical meeting go poorly because you didn't step in to save the presentation. Let a deadline slip if it's someone else's responsibility. It feels painful, but it's the only way to rebalance the workload.
Actionable Steps to Shed the Curse
If you're currently drowning in work because you're "too good," here is how you actually fix it. This isn't about being lazy; it's about being sustainable.
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1. Audit your "extra" tasks
Spend one week tracking everything you do that isn't in your official job description. You’ll probably be shocked. Are you the unofficial IT support? The office therapist? The person who cleans up the CRM? Tag these as "Low-Value Competence" tasks.
2. Implement the 80% Rule
When you finish a task, don't immediately announce it. If a project is due Friday and you finish Wednesday, use that extra time for your own professional development. Read a book, take a course, or think about long-term strategy. If you hand it in early every time, you’ll just get more work to fill that gap.
3. Teach, don't do
The next time someone asks for your "help" (which usually means "do it for me"), offer a 15-minute training session instead. Tell them, "I want to make sure you know how to do this so you don't have to wait on me next time." Most people who are looking for a shortcut will suddenly find a way to figure it out themselves. Those who actually want to learn will appreciate the mentorship.
4. Redefine your "brand"
If your brand is "the person who handles the messy stuff," change it to "the person who drives [Specific High-Value Result]." Shift the conversation from your reliability to your impact.
5. Negotiate for "The Competence Payoff"
If you cannot shed the extra work, it’s time for a direct conversation. "I’ve taken on the responsibilities of [Person X] and [Person Y] over the last six months while maintaining my own KPIs. I’d like to discuss a title change and salary adjustment that reflects this expanded role." If the answer is no, you have your answer: they aren't rewarding competence; they're exploiting it. It’s time to take that competence to a company that values it.
True career growth doesn't come from doing more of the same. It comes from doing more of what matters. Being the most "useful" person in the room is a great way to stay in that room forever. To move up, you have to be willing to let go of the things you're good at to make room for the things you're destined for.
Stop being the safety net for everyone else's lack of effort. Your career—and your mental health—will thank you.