You're not good enough—A shot of fearless culture #428

Your weekly dose of culture insights and exercises, one topic at a time.

Jun 10, 2026

“You’re not good enough.”

My father never said those words to me. But that’s how I felt after every rugby match I played. If we won, the rivals were weak. If we lost, I wasn’t a good player.

That’s the problem with perfectionists: they always focus on what’s missing. No matter how much progress you make, they’re never happy.

Leaders fall into this trap too. They set high standards and then move the goalposts before anyone can score. They rarely acknowledge any progress.

People don’t need to hear “you’re not good enough.” They feel it every time leaders only focus on what’s missing.

Acknowledging progress is not being weak. The leaders who do it build momentum. The others drain it.

My invitation for this week: turn progress into fuel.

Explore this week’s newsletter:

→ Progress Is Fuel: Why Perfectionist Leaders Never Win

→ Exercises and practical resources

Stay fearless, my friend.

Gustavo

In Case You Missed It

→ How to Build a Culture of Feedback that Actually Works

Ask Your Team This

What's something we accomplished that we never thought we could?

⚠️ Try This - Monitor Progress

Run a short monthly survey with your team to track your progress.

Start with the score: On a scale of 1–5, how much progress has our team made this month?

Then dig into what’s behind it:

What’s the most important progress you’ve noticed since last month?
What progress are we not paying attention to?
What’s getting in the way, and what could help us move faster?

Track progress monthly. The score tells where you stand. The other questions uncover what to improve. If you fix the issues but the score doesn’t improve, either your team members are not honest, or they’re suffering from perfectionism (nothing is good enough).