A few years ago, I met a talented manager who was stuck.
He had ideas. He wanted to step up. He saw opportunities for improvement.
But every time he tried something new, he heard the same response from leadership:
“That’s not how we do things here.”
So, he stopped pushing. Stopped questioning. Stopped growing.
And that’s the real problem.
Most leaders say they want innovation, agility, and growth. But their systems, policies, and habits tell a different story.
They don’t create space for it.
Growth requires room—room to experiment, fail, adjust, and move fast. Without it? People check out and teams stagnate.
If you want real breakthroughs, here’s how to stop blocking growth and start unlocking potential.
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1. Kill the “Permission-First” Culture
In many organizations, nothing happens unless it gets approved—by a manager, by another department, sometimes by multiple layers of leadership.
I once worked with a company where it took six weeks to get a simple project signed off. By the time it was approved, the opportunity had passed.
The result? Employees stopped taking initiative because they knew they’d just get stuck in waiting mode.
↳ Flip the script: Make it “Act First, Align Later.” Give your team the authority to make decisions and fix things on the fly—as long as it serves the bigger mission.
↳ Set clear boundaries instead of micromanaging. Instead of controlling every step, define the non-negotiables—budget limits, core principles—then let them run with it.
2. Reward Speed Over Perfection
Some leaders expect every idea to be fully developed before they’ll even consider it.
One executive told me, “We don’t launch anything until it’s perfect.”
But by the time their product was “perfect,” a competitor had already launched, improved, and dominated the market.
Growth thrives in motion, not in waiting.
↳ Encourage fast execution. If something is 80% ready, launch it. Adjust as you go.
↳ Turn perfectionism into progress. Instead of asking, “Is this flawless?” ask, “Is this good enough to test?”
↳ Track execution speed as a KPI. If your team isn’t shipping, testing, or launching quickly, they’re moving too slow.
3. Burn the “This Is How We’ve Always Done It” Rulebook
Every time I hear this phrase in a company, I know growth is suffocating.
I once worked with a team that rejected a new process because “the old system works fine.” But when I compared the numbers? The “old system” was costing them millions in wasted time.
It wasn’t working.
It was just comfortable.
↳ Ask: If we were starting from scratch today, would we do it this way? If the answer is no, change it.
↳ Break something on purpose. If a process is outdated, disrupt it. Remove steps. Challenge assumptions. Force innovation.
↳ Make change a habit. Set a rule: Every quarter, each team must identify one major process to improve or eliminate.
4. Make Failure Part of the Process
A business leader once told me, “We don’t have room for failure here.”
And I told him, “Then you don’t have room for growth.”
Because here’s the reality: No failure = no risk = no innovation.
If your team never messes up, it means they’re not trying anything new.
↳ Celebrate learning, not just winning. Recognize teams who took bold risks, even if they didn’t get it right the first time.
↳ Create low-cost failure zones. Give teams “safe” spaces to experiment—test ideas in small ways before scaling up.
↳ Stop punishing mistakes. Instead of asking “Who’s responsible for this failure?” ask, “What did we learn?”
5. Train for Agility, Not Just Skills
I’ve seen companies invest millions in training programs—only to realize their employees weren’t applying what they learned.
Why?
Because they trained people in skills but not in agility.
Training should not just be about gaining knowledge. It should be about making people adaptable, fast-moving, and ready to execute.
↳ Teach people how to think, not just what to do. The best employees are the ones who can figure things out, not just follow instructions.
↳ Make training real. Every workshop should end with, “How will you use this tomorrow?”—not just more theory.
↳ Test agility with real-world challenges. Give your team unexpected problems to solve under pressure. See how they adapt.
6. Replace Job Descriptions with Problem Ownership
One company I worked with had employees who stuck to their assigned roles—even when they saw problems that needed fixing.
I asked someone, “Why don’t you step in?”
Their answer? “That’s not my job.”
That was the problem.
A job title should not be a cage.
↳ Define roles by outcomes, not tasks. Instead of saying, “You’re responsible for X task,” say, “You’re responsible for making X better.”
↳ Let people shape their own roles. If someone finds a way to create value outside their job description, give them the space to do it.
↳ Remove barriers to action. If an employee has an idea that could drive growth, they shouldn’t need permission to act.
7. Get Rid of Meetings That Go Nowhere
Want to know one of the biggest reasons teams feel stuck?
Meetings that waste time and solve nothing.
I once observed a leadership team that spent 8 hours a week in meetings—but when I asked, “What decisions came out of them?” nobody had a clear answer.
↳ Cut meeting times in half. If something takes an hour, force it into 30 minutes. Most meetings stretch to fill the time available.
↳ No meeting without a decision. If there’s no clear outcome, cancel it.
↳ Teach people to solve problems without meetings. Instead of discussing everything, empower people to make calls and take action.
8. Create a Culture of Personal Excellence
Organizations don’t grow if the people inside them don’t grow.
I ask leaders all the time: “Are you challenging your people to be their best—or just to get the work done?”
Because people rise or fall to the expectations set for them.
↳ Set personal excellence goals. Not just company goals—individual growth goals. Challenge every team member to level up.
↳ Make excellence the standard, not the exception. Average shouldn’t be normal. High standards should be how things are done.
↳ Recognize and reward bold action. Not just effort, but impact. Who’s stepping up? Who’s making real change? Highlight them.
9. Make Growth a Daily, Not Yearly, Expectation
I once spoke with a manager who said, “We invest in employee growth through annual performance reviews.”
Annual? That’s too slow.
Growth isn’t something that happens once a year in a formal meeting. It’s something that should happen every single day.
High-performing teams don’t wait 12 months to reflect, adjust, or push forward. They do it constantly.
↳ Replace annual reviews with real-time feedback. Don’t wait for performance reviews to discuss growth. Make coaching a daily habit.
↳ Ask every week: “What did we improve?” If your team isn’t growing weekly, they’re stagnating.
↳ Make self-improvement a requirement. Encourage reading, learning, and skill-building as part of the job—not an optional extra.
10. Eliminate Excuses and Raise the Stakes
I once worked with a CEO who told me, “We have a growth culture.”
Yet, when I talked to employees, I heard:
“We’d love to improve, but we’re too busy.”
“We need more resources before we can do that.”
“It’s just not the right time.”
Excuses kill momentum.
If people feel like growth is optional, they won’t push themselves. But if they feel like growth is expected, they’ll find a way.
↳ Set deadlines for learning. If someone needs to build a skill, don’t just say “work on it.” Set a clear timeframe for when they’ll level up.
↳ Tie growth to opportunity. Make it clear: The people who push themselves forward are the ones who move up.
↳ Make complacency uncomfortable. If someone isn’t growing, challenge them. Ask, “Are you better today than you were last month?” If not, why?
No Growth, No Future.
If you don’t make space for growth, people check out.
They stop learning. They stop innovating. They stop pushing forward.
But when you clear the obstacles, eliminate the excuses, and demand personal excellence?
Your team doesn’t just grow.
They become unstoppable.
Want more ways to create a high-performance team?
Read How to Break a Culture That Settles next.
Because ordinary teams play the same game. Great teams change it.
