The strongest boundaries are the ones you enforce without making them a group discussion.

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

Announcing a boundary opens it up for comment, and once it is being discussed it is already being negotiated. The version that holds is quieter: you simply do not do the thing, and you keep not doing it. People adjust to consistent behavior far faster than to explanations. A rule that never needs defending stops being a rule and becomes a fact about you.

Pick one line you keep announcing and stop announcing it. Hold it three times with no commentary and watch how people treat it. Save your words for the rare case where someone genuinely did not know.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Which limit of yours needs enforcing rather than announcing to everyone?

MORE IN STRATEGY, SILENCE & POWER

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