Most executive dashboards glow with sales, margin, and productivity metrics. Yet the fuel that powers every number on the page is invisible: emotion.

When employees feel stretched thin by constant change, distracted by uncertainty, or disconnected from one another due to hybrid work or distributed teams, performance slides long before revenue does. By the time it hits revenue, it becomes harder to reverse.

Recent surveys show:

• 64% of professionals already feel overwhelmed by the pace of work, and willingness to support change has fallen from 76 % to 38% in just five years.
• AI-power users report 45% higher burnout than their peers as automation accelerates workflows faster than humans can adapt.
  
  

Numbers like these tell us that emotions drive an outsized share of organizational performance, yet few companies measure them. It’s time to add Key Emotional Indicators (KEIs) to the scorecard.

Meet the BEATS Metrics

Have you ever asked a manager to give an update on the emotional indicators of their team, and more importantly, how those emotions are affecting the team’s performance against goals?

At worst, you might get a vague answer like “People are fine,” or the slightly-more-descriptive  “People are a little worried about the changes, but doing ok.” At best, you might get scores quoted from their employee engagement score taken 8 months ago.

At SIY Global we’ve distilled the emotional pulse of a workforce into five leading indicators, which we call your BEATS:

Why these five? Research across multiple studies linking belonging, efficacy, agency, trust/fairness, psychological safety, to performance in multiple areas shows they are early warning lights for performance friction.

But it’s not just to avoid risk. When these indicators are strong, they become rocket fuel for your team to execute your company’s strategy with energy, creativity, and innovation.

How to Put KEIs Next to Your KPIs

1. Baseline First. Start by getting a quick emotional pulse. It doesn’t have to be anything heavy, just a couple of BEATS questions folded into your existing check-ins. Think of it like adding a thermometer to your quarterly engagement survey or monthly OKR review. In two minutes, you’ll know whether your team is running hot, cold, or somewhere in between.
2. Visualize the Intersection. Once you’ve got a few data points, lay them side by side with your core KPIs, such as project velocity, error rates, NPS. You’ll start spotting patterns faster than you’d expect. (Low psychological safety almost always shows up before innovation stalls.)
3. Identify Hot Spots. If certain functions or locations are lagging, take a closer look. A few focused listening sessions will tell you more than any spreadsheet can, and you’ll catch the real issues before turnover spikes.
4. Intervene Intentionally. This is one of the most critical areas for L&D, because it’s so hard to deploy blanket training when you don’t know what’s really going on. But wehn you have data, you can match the solution to the signal. Pair targeted training (e.g., inclusive feedback skills, stress-recovery micro-practices) with structural fixes (workflow clarity, resource realignment).
5. Re-measure & Celebrate. When you see BEATS climb and KPIs follow, put it on a slide and share it. Nothing builds buy-in like proof that emotional energy converts directly into performance gains.
   
   

The Payoff

When you track BEATS alongside your classic performance metrics, you can truly measure how emotions are creating fuel or friction for your team’s performance. A healthy BEATS profile tells you if your people can absorb a new AI rollout or a major restructure without grinding to a halt.

You also spot trouble long before it shows up in missed targets or failed launches. If belonging, trust, or psychological safety start dipping, you’re looking at early signs of an energy leak that—if ignored—will drain momentum from key initiatives months down the line.

And perhaps most importantly, you close the emotional performance gap. Instead of dismissing emotions as “soft stuff,” you’re treating them as hard data that gives leaders real levers to pull for faster, more sustainable growth.

Add BEATS to Your Dashboard

Your finance team wouldn’t run the business without a cash-flow forecast. Why let emotional energy remain a blind spot? Embed BEATS into next quarter’s dashboard, and turn feelings into a strategic asset that keeps every KPI beating strong.

Transform your leaders' pulse on change

BEATS metrics are part of our new course, Navigating the Emotions of Change. Explore this course and others designed to build resilience during change.

Equip teams for positive change

Author:

Ryan Heinl, CEO of SIY Global

Ryan Heinl is the CEO of SIY Global and a trailblazer at the intersection of emotional intelligence, neuroscience, and AI-enhanced learning. With over 15 years of experience leading product innovation in the leadership development space, Ryan has scaled multi-million dollar platforms, built award-winning learning solutions, and transitioned entire companies from old-school models to digital-first disruptors. His current mission? To redefine what it means to lead in the age of AI—where human insight is the new power skill. Equal parts strategist and scientist, Ryan brings a research-backed, results-obsessed approach to everything from executive coaching programs to mindfulness-based learning tools. Also: recovering philosopher, relentless rucker, and low-key data nerd.