It’s the age of balance, reasonable expectations and flexibility—and this is a good thing. But if you’re too low key as a leader, you’ll damage your team and face unintended consequences.

The talent shortage is real and the expectations for work have shifted significantly—making leadership all the more challenging.

And the stakes are especially high as leaders are under pressure to drive results for organizations and for people. In fact, 69% of people report that leaders have a greater impact on their mental health than their doctor or their therapist and on par with their partners. The responsibilities that leaders face are intense, for sure.

In response, popular opinion suggests that more is always better when it comes to meeting people where they are and providing for unlimited choice and autonomy.

But being too flexible, hands-off or having low expectations will actually create disengagement, demotivation and sub-par performance. Here’s why being too easy going isn’t best for people or results—and what to do instead.

Flexible Leaders Devalue

Flexibility is a good thing—and giving people more choice and control is correlated with engagement, happiness and discretionary effort. But if you go too far, and provide total freedom for people, they may conclude that their contribution isn’t critical.

Expressing that you’re easy going about when people come in or whether they show up can send the unintended message that their work doesn’t matter that much—or won’t move the needle.

We all have an instinct to matter and interestingly, the harder we work to accomplish something, the more satisfied we’ll feel when we get there. Putting effort into work isn’t a bad thing. Actually, it’s something that can create pride, satisfaction, confidence and accomplishment, according to research on the concept of authentic pride, published in the Journal of Research in Personality.

Great leaders set a high bar and hold people accountable for outcomes. They believe in their team members and all that they will achieve to make a difference for the team and the organization. They assign meaningful work and support people in accomplishing it.

Flexible Leaders Demotivate

At its best, flexible leadership can communicate that you trust people. But if you’re too mellow or milqutoast about your expectations, you’ll also face the unintended consequence of demotivating employees. If you don’t care about results, why should they?

When people face challenges and must solve problems, they tend to be happier, according to academic research. Learning, stretch and growth are ingredients for satisfaction at work.

Hard work also has the positive effect of building commitment. Known as the IKEA effect, when people work harder at something, they tend to feel especially committed and dedicated, according to research published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.

Great leaders set an example by their own performance, and they hold people to standards and meaningful outcomes. They create cultures of rigorous effort and excellent outcomes rather than mediocracy.

Flexible Leaders Degrade Performance

On the positive side, flexibility can create space for people to perform in the ways that work best for them, but if you fail to set appropriately high expectations, you’ll find that performance is reduced. People won’t understand how their work is important—and without a sense of purpose or direction, they’ll have trouble producing great results.

The primary way people learn is from others—and the choices each person makes affects the team. If you fail to inspire people with a sense of purpose and goals, they can lose gumption and have a demoralizing effect on others as well.

Energy and performance have a proven effect among team members. Research has shown that when people are engaged and motivated, it tends to have a positive impact on others.

And additional studies have proven that engagement, performance and satisfaction are all correlated. When people perform better, they tend to be more motivated—and when people are engaged they tend to be more satisfied—and so on.

Great leaders set meaningful, ambitious and achievable targets for individuals and teams—and they constantly clarify how team member contributions affect others as well as the organization and the customer.

Finding the Balance for Flexible Leadership

Of course, going too far toward rigor or unrealistic expectations is not the ideal—you don’t want to be overly driven or micromanaging—and it makes sense to provide choice and autonomy.

Leaders must find the balance between flexibility and standards for performance. Here’s how.

• Trust people and assume good intentions—knowing that people want to do a good job.
• Let people know how much you value them and need their attention, effort and great outcomes.
• Let employees know you trust them to manage their schedule and their work processes to get things done.
• Be clear with people about how their work impacts others on the team, the organization and the end customer.
• Clarify performance expectations that align—as much as possible—what people love to do with what they must do for the team and the organization.
• Ask questions, and give people the opportunity to speak up, express ideas, take initiative.
• Provide feedback, coaching and guidance, so people can continuously improve.
• Ensure people have the opportunity to learn and grow toward goals that are meaningful to them as they develop within their careers.
• Celebrate wins, recognize effort and hold people accountable.

Effective Leadership

At the same time work has changed, leadership has as well. The stakes are high, but leaders who express the right amount of flexibility can create the conditions for happiness, engagement and a positive experience of work—as well as great results for organizations.