You can be the one who raises the bar in your group without making anyone feel small.

Setting a higher standard and looking down on people are two separate moves, though they arrive together often enough to give standards a bad name. You can work harder than everyone around you without narrating it, without sighing, and without treating your effort as proof of your superiority. Done quietly, it pulls people up. Done loudly, it makes them defensive and slower.

Raise your own contribution first and stay generous about everybody else’s. Offer help before you offer an opinion. Groups tend to follow whoever lifts without turning it into a comparison.