Is there a vacuum where your expectations should be?

Ensuring your staff know what is expected of them is essential to creating a productive environment. Lynne Lloyd explains how setting clear guidelines helps your business to be more successful. 

Have you set up clear and explicit expectations for your team members to know and follow?  Maybe it is one of those things you meant to do but didn’t when you took on your team leadership position.

Amidst all the demands and challenges, it got probably got stuck in your “I’m meaning to…” column.  In other words, you meant to get around to it but it just didn’t happen.

In any case, don’t our team members know what we are about, and what our expectations of their behaviours and performances are? Why should we need to spell out the obvious?

We need to because, while it may be crystal clear to us, our expectations of the behaviours and performances we want to see, are far from obvious and common-sense to our team members.

Leaving a vacuum by not being clear and explicit about our expectations inevitably results in people management problems.  We become engulfed with various kinds of friction, disruptions, barriers and misunderstandings which are costly in time, morale and productivity for managers and team members alike.

What does a set of clear expectations look like?  Here is the Commander’s Intent set up by Major General Simone Wilkie AM at the Defence Force Academy, Canberra.  Simone has set up a small number of expectations – only three – but note how clear, powerful and value-laden they are.

None of her staff should have doubts about what kind of leader Simone is and how she expects them to conduct themselves.  Having a clear set of expectations in place, Simone is able to refer to them and consistently manage/lead according to them.

If there were no such plainly-stated expectations, her staff would have to guess what Simone expected and would find out by trial and error what she did and didn’t want from them.

If you are a new manager, in the first few weeks (no longer than two months in) think about and work out (seek input from your own manager, or an executive coach, and/or a mentor):

1. What kind of leader am I?  What kind of leader will I become?  What are my leadership values and beliefs?
2. What are my core expectations of myself, and the people I manage/lead?  (You may find you come up with a long list.  By discussion and reflection, this needs to be trimmed way, way down to no more than five, even better like Simone – three.)
3. Promote your expectations repeatedly and consistently with all team members and colleagues:  at meetings, at one-on-ones, in presentations, everyone gets an A4 laminated page of your expectations to be displayed at their desk.
4. Manage and lead according to your stated and agreed expectations and refer to them when team members fail to meet these expectations. Equally recognise and praise team members who are performing at or above your expectations.

For experienced and even senior managers who have never set up clear performance expectations for their direct reports, it is not too late to change and follow the steps above. To bring people along with you, it is a good idea to include and consult your team members as to what expectations they consider to be fair and reasonable. Make it a discussion/brainstorming item on your next team meeting agenda. This will also provide an opportunity for you to discover and understand their expectations of you as their manager.

Ask “What kind of manager do you like to have and who gets the best from you?  Why?”