A leader should make difficult standards feel possible, not arbitrary.

A high standard people cannot see a path to is experienced as an arbitrary demand, and arbitrary demands produce resentment rather than effort. The same standard, broken into steps with support attached, reads as ambition. What changes is not the bar but whether it looks reachable from where people are standing.

When you set something difficult, say why it matters and what the first step looks like. Then check whether anyone actually knows how to begin. If they do not, the standard is not yet a standard, it is a wish.