Many managers believe pressure drives performance. Others focus heavily on support. But high-performing teams don’t choose one or the other. They operate with both.

When expectations are high, but support is low, people become defensive, stressed, and disengaged.

When support is high but expectations are low, performance suffers. The real challenge for managers is learning how to balance intensity with kindness so teams feel both challenged and supported.

Fortunately, this week’s guest shares a practical and grounded approach to building this balance.

Evan Marks, a mental performance coach who has worked in high-stakes environments, explains why people don’t rise to the occasion but fall to their level of training. He also shares how structure, emotional regulation, and clear communication help teams perform under pressure.

In this conversation, we explore how to create psychological safety without lowering standards, how to shift from feedback to “feedforward,” and why leaders must model ownership and emotional control if they want their teams to do the same.

Get FREE mini-episode guides with the big idea from the week’s episode delivered to your inbox when you subscribe to my weekly email.

Join the conversation now!

💡Conversation Topics

• (00:00) Introduction
• (02:06) The gap between expectations and preparation
• (04:48) Structure vs. wishing for performance
• (08:15) Autonomy inside strong guardrails
• (11:22) Psychological safety in high-performance environments
• (15:03) Intensity with kindness
• (19:26) Feedforward instead of feedback
• (23:40) Leadership, ownership, and accountability
• (27:12) Language, emotional control, and awareness
• (29:43) [Extended Episode Only] Elevating team mental performance
• (33:31) [Extended Episode Only] Building psychological safety without lowering standards
• (37:39) [Extended Episode Only] Ownership, trust, and team culture

📚 Additional Resources:

✨Get the extended episode by joining The Modern Manager Podcast+. Community for just $15 per month

✨ Read the full transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zN2YyAMYJXogkS7Pv1zh_zTFLw19q_K5ZPwa20qq0GU/edit?usp=sharing

✨Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modernmanagerpodcast

✨Visit my website for more: https://www.mamieks.com/

✨Upskill your team: https://themodernmanager.com/replaybundle

✨Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jhYz8b16g1SsLia4EhO5w?sub_confirmation=1

Keep up with Evan Marks

- Connect with Evan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmarks-m1/

- Explore website here: http://www.m1performancegroup.com/

📢 Guest Bonus: The 20-Minute Evening Reset

This 5-Step Evening Reset gives you the foundation for peak performance. This reset combines breathwork, journaling, goal setting, and clearing mental clutter so you wake up as your most focused, composed self.

To get this bonus and many other member benefits, become a member of The Modern Manager Podcast+ Community.

---------------------

The Modern Manager is a leadership podcast for rockstar managers who want to create a working environment where people thrive and great work gets done.

Many teams struggle with the same invisible problem: unspoken norms that quietly undermine collaboration, performance, and trust.

Even when leaders want better behaviors, more ownership, healthier boundaries, and stronger collaboration, change often stalls because no one has named what’s actually happening.

Fortunately, this week’s guest helps managers put language to the hidden norms shaping their teams and offers a practical way to replace judgment-based practices with norms that help people do their best work.

Nilofer Merchant is a bestselling author, speaker, and thought leader on innovation, collaboration, and organizational culture. In her work, she focuses on helping leaders identify the outdated norms holding teams back and redesign work in ways that unlock human potential. She is the author of Our Best Work and founder of The Intangible Labs.

In this conversation, we explore how managers can surface unspoken norms, talk about them without defensiveness, and create shared ownership for cultural change. We also discuss why real change requires choice, not control, and how small shifts in language and process can cascade into healthier team dynamics.

Get FREE mini-episode guides with the week’s episode's big idea delivered to your inbox when you subscribe to my weekly email.

Join the conversation now!

Conversation Topics

• (00:00) Introduction
• (02:18) Why unspoken norms quietly shape team behavior
• (06:04) Naming judgment-based practices that limit performance
• (10:41) Replacing judgment with encouragement at work
• (15:36) How language gives teams permission to change
• (19:58) Connecting team values to everyday behaviors
• (24:27) Why do people resist change even when they want it
• (29:02) Creating choice instead of control to enable real change
• (30:02) [Extended Episode Only] How to talk openly about norms as a team
• (33:12) [Extended Episode Only] Using shared ownership to sustain new behaviors
• (37:57) [Extended Episode Only] Designing work that supports flexibility and trust

📚 Additional Resources:

✨Get the extended episode by joining The Modern Manager Podcast+ Community for just $15 per month

✨ Read the full transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Gi5EaI0UEf6AAUlTP56KXuQWU2Uv_tLNoq1ciyKI4Jg/edit?usp=sharing

✨Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mamieks/

✨Visit my website for more: https://www.mamieks.com/

✨Upskill your team: https://themodernmanager.com/replaybundle

✨Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jhYz8b16g1SsLia4EhO5w?sub_confirmation=1

Keep up with Nilofer Merchant

- Connect with her on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nilofermerchant/

Guest Bonus: Early Access to the Growth Assessment

Intangibles now drive 84% of value creation, yet most managers are flying blind. This early access gives you visibility into the invisible drivers of growth and data on what actually happens when you address what matters.

To get this bonus and many other member benefits, become a member of The Modern Manager Podcast+ Community.

---------------------

The Modern Manager is a leadership podcast for rockstar managers who want to create a working environment where people thrive, and great work gets done.

Follow The Modern Manager on your favorite podcast platform so you won’t miss an episode!

#Leadership #Management #WorkplaceCulture #TeamCulture #OrganizationalCulture