Imagine this: You walk into a room filled with your team members. Everyone's at their desk, working away, hitting their deadlines, doing what they need to do. From the outside, it looks like everything is moving smoothly. But the truth? Most of them are only working at 70% or 80% of what they’re truly capable of. They think they’re doing their best because they’ve been conditioned to believe that good enough is... well, good enough. But you know there’s a whole other level of performance they’re not tapping into.

Now, imagine you set a new standard. You walk in one day and say, “We’re not doing this the same way anymore. From now on, we’re pushing for 110%.” And here’s the thing—you’re not just saying this because you want to sound like the ‘tough’ leader. You’re saying it because you know that’s where greatness happens.

Let me paint a scenario for you.

Your company is launching a new product. It’s a make-or-break situation, and everyone’s been putting in the hours to get everything ready. Marketing is doing their thing, sales is on the phone with clients, product development is making sure everything works. But you start noticing something: people are hitting their marks, but they’re not going beyond them.

You call a meeting. Everyone thinks it's just another check-in. But instead, you look them in the eyes and say, “We’re not here to just hit marks. We’re here to redefine them.”

You don’t tell them to work harder for the sake of it. You challenge them to find the edge—to figure out what they can do, beyond what’s expected, to make this product launch incredible. Maybe the marketing team brainstorms a campaign that’s bolder than anything they’ve done before. Maybe the sales team pushes to double their outreach. Maybe the product team finds a way to make the user experience just that little bit smoother. That’s where success happens—in those extra steps.

Imagine if every person on your team wasn’t just checking off tasks but competing with themselves to push harder. Not because you told them to, but because they want to be part of something bigger. That’s how you create a culture of 100% effort.

It reminds me of what some companies do to set the bar high. Take Tesla, for example. Elon Musk is known for setting nearly impossible standards. Whether you love him or hate him, one thing is clear: he’s not interested in “good enough”. He’s built a culture where the expectation is to go beyond. Teams work late, push themselves, and come up with innovations no one thought possible. And yeah, it’s hard, but look at the results. Tesla didn’t become the most valuable car company in the world by people doing the bare minimum.

Or think about Apple. Steve Jobs didn’t build a trillion-dollar company by accepting average. When he was working on the iPhone, he pushed his engineers to create a product that didn’t just work well—it had to revolutionize the industry. And that only happened because he set the expectation that 110% was the bare minimum.

Now, back to your team.

After you raise the bar, some people might push back. They might say it’s too much. But guess what? The people who rise to the challenge will be the ones who stick around and make a difference. And the ones who don’t? Well, maybe they weren’t the right fit for a high-performance team to begin with. It’s not about weeding people out—it’s about building a culture where everyone is pushing each other to be better.

Here’s the thing: Most people don’t realize they’re leaving 30% of their potential on the table. They think they’re working hard because they’ve never been in an environment where the standard was pushed higher. And the only way to unlock that extra potential is to create a culture where it’s not just okay to go above and beyond—it’s expected.

Now, I’m not saying this is easy. It takes time, it takes commitment, and it takes you showing up every day and setting the pace. But when you do, you’ll notice something incredible. Your team will stop seeing 100% as the goal and start asking, “How much more can I give?”

That’s when the magic happens.

Yigal

P.S. If you’re serious about creating a culture that pushes beyond the limits, let’s chat. Building high-performance teams takes strategy, but once you have it in place, the results speak for themselves. Let’s make it happen.

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