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Many managers believe pressure drives performance. Others focus heavily on support. But high-performing teams don’t choose one or the other. They operate with both.

When expectations are high, but support is low, people become defensive, stressed, and disengaged.

When support is high but expectations are low, performance suffers. The real challenge for managers is learning how to balance intensity with kindness so teams feel both challenged and supported.

Fortunately, this week’s guest shares a practical and grounded approach to building this balance.

Evan Marks, a mental performance coach who has worked in high-stakes environments, explains why people don’t rise to the occasion but fall to their level of training. He also shares how structure, emotional regulation, and clear communication help teams perform under pressure.

In this conversation, we explore how to create psychological safety without lowering standards, how to shift from feedback to “feedforward,” and why leaders must model ownership and emotional control if they want their teams to do the same.

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Conversation Topics

• (00:00) Introduction

• (02:06) The gap between expectations and preparation

• (04:48) Structure vs. wishing for performance

• (08:15) Autonomy inside strong guardrails

• (11:22) Psychological safety in high-performance environments

• (15:03) Intensity with kindness

• (19:26) Feedforward instead of feedback

• (23:40) Leadership, ownership, and accountability

• (27:12) Language, emotional control, and awareness

• (29:43) [Extended Episode Only] Elevating team mental performance

• (33:31) [Extended Episode Only] Building psychological safety without lowering standards

• (37:39) [Extended Episode Only] Ownership, trust, and team culture

Additional Resources

✨Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/modernmanagerpodcast 

✨Visit my website for more: https://www.mamieks.com/ 

✨Level up your skills: https://themodernmanager.com/replaybundle 

✨Subscribe to my YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7jhYz8b16g1SsLia4EhO5w?sub_confirmation= 

✨Read the full transcript here

Keep up with Evan Marks

- Connect with Evan on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanmarks-m1/

- Explore website here: http://www.m1performancegroup.com/

Guest Bonus (available to members of Podcast+): The 20-Minute Evening Reset

This 5-Step Evening Reset gives you the foundation for peak performance. This reset combines breathwork, journaling, goal setting, and clearing mental clutter so you wake up as your most focused, composed self.

👉 To get this guest bonus and many other member benefits, become a member of The Modern Manager Podcast+ Community: https://themodernmanager.com/more 

The Modern Manager is a leadership podcast for rockstar managers who want to create a working environment where people thrive and great work gets done.

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