What did you expect?

Expectations must be shared to be met

The good thing about expectations is that we all have them. They are a natural target setter in our head. They are built-in to our brain, and they happen whether we like it or not.

But this can trip us up.

If someone at work isn’t meeting those expectations, it’s likely because they haven’t been shared thoroughly. 

Things can get off track. 

The most common cause of missed goals happens when we fail to get clear on our expectations. We might automatically assume that what is coming from our team will be high quality and land by tomorrow. But it’s not until it arrives that we realise we failed to explain some aspects of our wishes!

KEY POINT: Expectations have to be shared to be met.

I was working with a senior finance leader. He was constantly disappointed with the work his team gave him. He said he had to always redo reports and reshape them to get what he wanted. When I dug deeper it was clear that he was not articulating his expectations. He said that his team “should know this stuff”. 

With that mindset his expectations were never going to be met. And it’s a classic example where we go over expectations on our own, in our head. We don’t always share and discuss them with those doing the work.

My latest research includes 100 managers across 100 businesses. It shows that 69% of managers say that they are not sure if employees know how their performance is being measured. OMG!

Every Manager that is unclear is going to fail or at best impact their results.

Duplication, mistakes, disappointment and low moral are all symptoms of expectations not being explained by managers.

“Bring me a dog tomorrow” can sound quite specific to some managers. But what happens when your colleague rocks up with a fierce Dobermann, and you were expecting a cute Pug?

“Why didn’t you explain that to begin with?”

Having the conversations upfront and consistently reminding teams of expectations is crucial.

Try these framing questions below to help you effectively set expectations. You can use this as a template to allocate projects if that makes it easier.

Have you had a moment where you realised you failed to clarify your expectations? What happened and what lessons have you learned?

Setting clear expectations
- What is happening?
- Why do we need this and how will it be used?
- What standard are we aiming to achieve?
- What length or depth of product is needed?
- What can be used to complete this task?
- When: dates and times.
- What else?