Uber’s CEO is trending this week for a rule most of the internet hates. I am not here to defend it. I am here because, whatever you think of the rule, he did the one thing most leaders never do. He said it out loud. That is the whole lesson in setting clear expectations, and it comes with a $9.8 billion receipt.

The rule the internet hates

On the Diary of a CEO podcast, Dara Khosrowshahi said part of working hard at Uber is sending the team emails on a Saturday, “and if I don’t get a response on Saturday, sending them an email on Sunday with a question mark.” His summary of the culture: “Don’t come here if you want to coast.” Fortune resurfaced the clip on September 27, and it has been the most-read business story in America since.

Some context. When he took over in 2017, Uber was losing billions of dollars a year. Years of growth had made the place comfortable, and he decided part of the fix was cultural. Last year the company produced $9.8 billion in free cash flow. He credits the culture. You can argue with that. You cannot argue with this: everyone at Uber knows the rule. Before they apply. Before the first Saturday. Before the question mark ever shows up.

Setting clear expectations, the SEAL version

Now look at your own team. How many of your standards live only in your head? How fast you expect a reply. How prepared you expect people to be before a meeting. What “on time” actually means. Your people find out when they break one. Then comes the look, or the cold email, or the reputation, over a rule nobody ever said out loud.

In the SEAL Teams the standard was never a secret. You knew what the bell cost before you rang it. You knew what a late man cost the platoon before the sun came up. Hard, yes. Hidden, never. Nobody who made it through BUD/S was ever surprised by what BUD/S asked of them.

Here is what I have watched play out in the Teams, in the Bureau, and in boardrooms. Nobody quits over a rule they knew. They quit over the one they found out about the hard way. And the reverse is just as true. Once people trust that what you require of them is consistent and predictable, most of them enjoy coming to work. Not because the standard is soft. Because it is known.

The second half of the rule

Notice what most of the coverage skipped: the Sunday question mark. That is enforcement, the same way, every time. Boring, predictable, and not personal. A standard you state and never enforce is not a standard at all. It is a behavior you are tolerating. And the behavior you tolerate becomes your culture, whether you meant it to or not.

That is where most leaders lose it. They will state a standard once, in a kickoff or an all-hands, and then let it slide for the person they like, or the week that got busy, or the client that was screaming. By the third slide, the team has learned the real rule: the standard applies when the boss is in a mood. That is not a high bar. It is a moving one, and moving bars are what people actually quit over.

Apply it this week

1. Find the unspoken one. Write down the standard you enforce most often without ever having said it. One sentence. If you cannot get it to one sentence, it is not clear enough to enforce.
2. Say it out loud. To the whole team, this week, before anyone breaks it. Not in a memo. In the room.
3. Enforce it the same way every time. Calm and boring. The first time you let it slide is the day it stops being a standard.

Then take three questions to your team Monday morning. What is one rule around here that everyone follows but nobody has ever said out loud? When did you last find out about a standard by breaking it? Which of our standards do we actually enforce, and which do we just talk about?

Setting clear expectations is not about being the toughest boss in the building. It is about making sure nobody on your team is ever surprised by what you expect of them. Uber’s CEO put his rule on the record. Put yours on the record this week.

Keep your eyes on the target. — Errol