I believe most people are operating at about 60% of what they are actually capable of. Not because they are lazy. Because the environment around them makes it rational to protect themselves rather than risk being wrong. Performance cultures do this. Zero-sum dynamics do this. Leaders who mistake authority for trust do this.

What unlocks the other 40% is psychological safety — not the soft version, the real version. The kind where people tell you the truth, surface problems early, and try things they are not certain will work. That only happens when the leader goes first. When they model vulnerability before expecting it from anyone else.

I learned this on the Commando Course before I learned it in any book. The people who made it through were not the physically strongest. They were the ones who helped the person next to them. Who told the truth about how they were feeling and kept moving anyway. Who understood that the team's performance was always more important than looking good individually.

That is what I try to build. Everywhere. Every time.