For 3 sprints in a row your team overdelivers, you face a choice.
Do you raise the target? Push for more?
I used to think that's what good leadership looked like. Maximising output. Rewarding success with higher expectations.
Then I learned the difference between a team that's performing and a team that's sustainable.
The symptoms of pushing too hard aren't always obvious. People still hit deadlines. Code still ships. But the Spotify health checks start showing strain. The quiet ones get quieter. Your best people start updating their LinkedIn profiles.
With my strongest team, when we finished a sprint early, I didn't raise the bar for the next one. I gave them the remaining time to invest as they saw fit, as long as it served the project.
Some tackled tech debt. Others experimented with new tools. A few did training. Some just talked.
These weren't breaks. They were investments.
That team delivered consistently for over two years. Not because I pushed them harder, but because I didn't.
Sustainable pace isn't about doing less. It's about doing more for longer.