Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:

What we assume people can do influences the opportunities we give them. Sometimes, the limits we see are the ones our own expectations have helped create.

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Walt Hunter was worried about his students. After nearly two decades of teaching, stories about declining reading habits, his own difficulty sustaining attention, and the availability of AI-generated essays had left him wondering how much reading he could reasonably expect them to do.

He assigned the demanding reading anyway.

In his essay, “Stop Meeting Students Where They Are,” published in The Atlantic, Hunter describes what happened when he asked students to spend substantial time with literature. They read everything, or most of it. They gave time and attention to something he had feared they might refuse to do.

I thought about how easily his concerns could have led to a different decision: shorter assignments…fewer books. and less expected of students whose willingness he had yet to discover.

That is a familiar decision in places far beyond a classroom.

We decide that a team member cannot handle more responsibility…that a client will never read a detailed explanation…that people will resist a change, struggle with a difficult idea, or fail to follow through.

We adjust what we offer, and explain or ask of them according to what we believe they can manage.

Sometimes those judgments come from experience. Sometimes we have inherited them from other people. Sometimes we are anticipating a disappointing response and make decisions to avoid it.

Over time, we can stop checking which it is.

Consider a manager who believes nobody on the team takes initiative. Every decision comes back to that manager. Suggestions are routinely revised. Even small changes require approval. Eventually, people wait to be told what to do.

The manager sees the waiting and takes it as confirmation: this team needs constant direction.

But how much room has anyone been given to practise judgment? What happens when someone makes a reasonable decision differently from the way the manager would have made it? Has taking initiative ever resulted in greater trust?

Before deciding that people lack a capability, we need to examine whether the way we work allows that capability to develop and become visible.

There is an important detail in Hunter’s account. He changed his own teaching arrangements. He replaced take-home essays with short essays written in class, giving students more time for the reading he was asking them to do. He explained why that time mattered.

His expectations were accompanied by changes that made it more possible to meet them.

Asking more of people carries a responsibility.

We need to consider the time, guidance, resources and authority available to them. Otherwise, we can set a higher expectation, leave every obstacle in place, and use the resulting struggle to justify what we believed all along.

Of course, we must take into consideration that people have real limitations. Experience, skill, interest and circumstances all affect what someone can take on. A willingness to question our assumptions still requires us to pay attention to those realities.

Understanding where someone is should leave room for discovering where they could go…examining what’s possible for them.

The same examination applies to the decisions we make about ourselves.

A difficult attempt can become a lasting conclusion. We decide we cannot concentrate, cannot learn something new, cannot manage a particular responsibility. Then we arrange our lives so that the conclusion is rarely tested again.

Hunter’s experience does not tell us that everyone will rise to every expectation. It gives us a reason to reconsider the expectations we have already defined.

Before we reduce the challenge, take over the work, or rule someone out, we can ask what our judgment is based on—and whether we have given them a fair opportunity to show us something different.

Strategic Reflection Prompt

Where have you decided what someone—including yourself—can manage, and what would give you a fair opportunity to reconsider?

About Giselle

Most costly decisions begin with a wrong read of the situation.

I’m Giselle Hudson — writer and Pre-Fixer. I don’t fix; I pre-fix. Most advisers jump to solutions before they’ve found the real problem. I find it first — the part that isn’t fully visible yet. Once we see that clearly, everything else falls into place, and confident, right action can follow.

Through my daily Strategic Alignment Journal, I explore leadership, decision-making, and the patterns that shape organizations — helping leaders make sense of complexity before they commit significant time and money to the wrong thing.

What’s the one thing about your business that frustrates you most — the thing that, despite your best efforts, you can’t seem to resolve?