Here’s a simple experiment to try in your next team meeting: ask your colleagues, “Could you please raise your hand as high as you can?”
Pause for a second or two, then ask them to raise their hands a little higher.
What do see?
You’ll see that your colleagues instantly stretch their hands a little bit more.
To recap—your first request asked them to raise their hands as high as they could . . . so why didn’t they do that? Why or how could they possibly raise their hands a bit higher, after the second request?
This is what usually happens at work and during our daily routines: we stretch only when asked to, and stretch a bit more, when asked to do so the second time.
Right from childhood, we experience people around us asking for a bit more. These are our parents, teachers, coaches, etc. . . . always asking for a bit more.
Our minds are unknowingly conditioned by and accustomed to this behavior. The same behavior can be observed across multiple aspects of our daily work and life—we raise ourselves above our average practices when asked for, and then raise ourselves even more when asked again.
Acknowledging this aspect of the human condition, the real question is:
Should you wait for someone to ask, and ask again, or should you “raise above” on your own?