"When a team's exhausted it's usually because they were pushed a little too hard. People can't run forever, they can't keep going at top speed all the time. However, if you find yourself in a situation where you absolutely have to push through to a certain point, establish a milestone or landmark for the team to say, 'When we get there, it will give us an opportunity to take a break.' If you find yourself doing this all the time, you probably have a mismatch between your resources and your goals, and you have to fix it there--you can't just keep pushing people all the time. Rainbows and happy slogans aren't going to work; these are grownups." -- Jim McCarthy