Set Your Expectations!

If you want to make sure that you have a bad start in your new job or next career step, stay away from clarifying expectations – this is true for bosses and subordinates alike and no matter on which level -.

I vary the prominent Gallup’s 1st and important question about employee engagement:
“ Do I know what is expected of me at work” for bosses:
“ Does my employee know what I expect from him at work?”
If the answer is “no” or “I am not so sure” in either case, go and get an answer or give one. It works wonders.

Let me talk about a case I had some time ago: I was asked by the head of a company to coach a director who had joined the organization a few months ago and was not really performing well. Let’s call the director Greg. He had problems with his people (reports), with his ownership for particular working areas, with his responsibility for products and with his knowledge about certain parts of his job. Unfortunately customers also didn’t feel really taken care of.

As a standard procedure I asked the “boss” to sit together with me and my coachee to clarify the issues at hand and to identify the intended outcome he, the organization and my coachee wanted to achieve. This triggered a first! intense discussion between boss and Greg because they wanted to talk in unison with me in the initial meeting. As well, a great presentation about the issues was prepared by his boss.

Then the first coaching session started. Greg was upbeat because he got the feeling that his boss really wanted to keep and improve him (he had assumed before that the end of his career with that company was near). When our discussion came to a point for Greg to specifically define what he understood as his accountability for certain areas and responsibility for products he started to get nervous and became uneasy. Result: he had to suddenly accept his insight that he didn’t really know – and had never bothered to ask. On the other hand, had Greg discussed with his reports what he expected them to do and how? A clear no, never. He had assumed they would know as they were already longer with that company and understood the business. Assumptions and guesses had taken over.

Greg agreed with a deep breath of “I don’t know whether that works” to talk to his boss and clarify all his expectations, understanding of accountability and responsibility for the areas under discussion. I held my breath for a week until our next coaching session started.

7 days later a smiling Greg entered the room and could hardly wait telling me what happened. His boss had immediately agreed to work with him through all the issues and had clearly defined what he wanted from Greg (set his expectations). Following this Greg had his first! meeting with all his staff to clarify his expectations and even got feedback from them – and it worked. The “rest” was bringing Greg up to par with his leadership skills so that he would bring more results through his people.

If this sounds unbelievable or too good to be true, I agree. That was my first reaction as well. But I just saw it happening and that’s why I am telling this story.

And by the way, this is a very common story about big problems because expectations have not been set and discussed. The very fast and quick positive result in this story is the part truly astonishing.
It’s worth trying.