Have you ever announced a big new target to a team member, only to watch them tense up in their chair and then quietly miss the mark for the rest of the year? In this video, Jonathan Perez, Founder & CEO of The Conscious Teams Project, walks through a moment that plays out in leadership meetings all the time, and why it's a bigger deal than most leaders realize.
Here's the scenario: a CEO tells her team this year's revenue goal is doubling from $5M to $10M. Everyone nods. But the person actually responsible for hitting that number has a physical reaction. His body contracts. His face flushes a little. He doesn't say a word. The meeting just... moves on.
Seven months later, he's way under target…
Jonathan explains how this isn't about effort or motivation. It's about internal capacity. Our nervous systems have a real, gut-level sense of what feels achievable, and just announcing a bigger number out loud doesn't automatically shift that.
When leaders miss the nonverbal signals, the subtle cues of doubt or fear, people end up unconsciously capping their own performance at whatever number actually feels doable to them, no matter what was announced in the room.
The good news: the fix isn't complicated, though it does take skill, courage, and trust. Leaders can learn to catch these physical cues in the moment and objectively name what they're seeing: "Hey, I noticed your shoulders tensed up when I said $10 million, what's coming up for you as I share this new target?" That one small pause and invitation can crack open a real conversation, one where doubts get discussed in the moment and trust gets built.
The big idea here: hitting ambitious goals isn't just about setting a larger target. It's about building enough trust on your team that people can actually tell you, in the moment, when a target doesn't feel achievable to them. From there, you can discuss and align on a plan to make it achievable together.
