Last week during our town hall meeting I told my full team that we're raising the bar. Now I want to tell you what that actually means for YOU.

When most leaders hear "raise the standard," they start thinking about outputs, which is not WRONG - but how do we GET those outputs? With inputs.. specifically communication, let me tell you why :)

I have seen two scenarios. I've seen leaders on this team be handed initiatives - have clear objectives, a strong team, plenty of resources. Everything they needed to win. And they laid out the plan, set the expectations, and then... basically went MIA. They assumed the standard had been communicated because they'd said it ONE TIME in a meeting, nobody pushed back and the fact nobody brought it up again they assumed meant people were busy working on it.

All wrong 😄

By the time the cracks show, the project is weeks behind and the team is frustrated. Not because they can't do the work, but because nobody had talked about the work in enough detail, with enough frequency, with enough honesty for them to actually stay coordinated! That means the leader didn't fail at the project strategy - they failed at communication AROUND it.

I've seen the opposite too. A leader who is relentless about staying in conversation with their people constantly checking in before things go sideways, making space for people to say what's actually happening instead of what sounds nice, pulling in supporting perspectives from outside the team before making decisions. Those leader's teams hit a higher bar almost automatically, because the information and trust required to perform at that level is already there.

Same company. Same resources. Same talent pool. VERY different results.

The difference, communication!

And this isn't just my observation. MIT proved it with a study I will never forget and still 9 years later reference every chance I get!

Researchers at the MIT Human Dynamics Lab spent years studying teams across every kind of industry – tech, healthcare, finance, call centers and what they found should change how you think about your job: communication patterns are a greater predictor of a team's success than intelligence, personality, or individual skill – COMBINED.

Communication explained roughly 40% of the variation in team performance.

40 fucking percent based on HOW PEOPLE TALK!!!

Which means when I raise the standard for the whole company, the ceiling on what your team can actually achieve is determined by how well you communicate. I can raise the bar as high as I want. If your communication isn't good enough, your team won't reach it. Not because they're incapable but b/c the clarity, trust and information required to perform at a higher level literally cannot travel through a shitty communication system.

Great team communication comes down to 3 elements, I want you to think about which ones are strong vs weak for your teams:

Energy: the frequency and intensity of how you exchange ideas with your people. You heard me set a new bar on Monday. How many of you have gone back to your team since then and had a real conversation about what it means for them specifically?  Actually sat down and translated the standard into what it looks like for their projects, their day-to-day, their week.

A standard without explanation and specific actions tied to it is just a wish. Specificity is what turns words into behavior.

Engagement: how evenly communication is distributed across your team. Here's the test: in your last team meeting, how many people actually spoke? Not just your usual two or three. ALL OF THEM. If half your team is silent, you don't have alignment, you have compliance and compliance might get you through a normal week, but it will absolutely crumble once the system is stressed.

When the bar goes up, people need to feel safe enough to ask questions, push back, flag problems early. If your quietest team member wouldn't feel comfortable challenging an idea in a meeting, your engagement isn't where it needs to be.

Exploration: how often you and your team go outside your immediate circle to bring in new information and new perspectives. This is the one that separates teams that improve from teams that just try harder. Standards don't raise themselves. Somebody has to go find what "better" actually looks like. That's your job. If your team is only talking to each other, you're benchmarking against yourselves — which means your ceiling is whatever you already know. The leaders who make the biggest leaps are the ones pulling ideas from other departments, other companies, other industries and bringing that intelligence back to their people. Raising the bar isn't just about effort, it’s about finding MODELS of what ‘better’ looks like.

So what can you DO?

1. Diagnose your gap this week. Look at your team through the lens of Energy, Engagement, and Exploration. Which one is your weakest right now? If you're not sure, pay attention in your next two or three interactions and it'll become obvious :P

2. Create one moment where you deliberately increase engagement. Call on someone who's been quiet. Before you make a decision, ask for the dissenting opinion first. Go to someone outside your team and ask what they see that you don't. See what happens.

Every great team I've ever seen had one thing in common. It wasn't that they had the best strategy or the most talent. It was that their leader made it damn near impossible to be confused about what mattered and made it safe enough to tell the truth about what wasn't working. That's not a personality trait or something you are born with - that is a learnable SKILL :)

- Leila

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