A little while back, I spoke to my friend Jason. Jason was a mid-level manager at the company where he worked, but he was still responsible for creating the vision and setting clear expectations. In his position, he was a leader in every sense of the word and faced all the regular leadership challenges.
One particular challenge that Jason faced came from the inability of others to set clear expectations. As a mid-level manager, Jason reported to leaders within his organization. They regularly gave him big projects to work on that helped move the company towards some of the overall corporate goals. At the time I spoke to him, he had received a number of projects from his superiors. His frustration at the time was that they had not given him clear clear expectations.
The importance of clear expectations
As Jason began working on the projects, he asked for additional clarification on what he should do. They clarified to the point where Jason felt he had clear expectations, so he began working towards the completion of the projects. In many cases, Jason’s vision for the projects was greater than the vision of his superiors. He worked very hard on each project to get the projects done. Once he was done, he presented his work to his superiors for approval. They would inevitably say he had done a great job, but he needed to add some things here or change some things there. Many of the changes were extensive and required a lot of work.
To eliminate the drastic changes once the project was complete, Jason changed his approach. He decided that from the very beginning of each project, he would ask many more questions to get a deeper clarification so he would start with clear expectations. As he began this change in process, he realized that his own superiors didn’t have clear expectations of their anticipated outcome. This brought to light the importance of setting clear expectations from the very beginning. Jason’s own superiors didn’t have clear expectations, so how could they possible set clear expectations for others?
So what can we learn from this? As a leader, it is very important to set clear expectations for those you lead. So how can you do this?
Set clear expectations to clarify your vision and goals
It is extremely important to clarify your thoughts so you can set clear expectations. If you don’t, you will waste a lot of time and money. In Jason’s situation, he spent extra time and effort doing things according the original expectations but then having to redo everything once the expectations were changed. This resulted in an ineffective use of valuable resources. Jason’s time and effort could have been better spent on other things that would have led to the end result.
As a leader, before you propose a new vision, set a new goal, or try to set clear expectations for others, make sure you have everything straight in your own mind. Clarify your own ideas so you can convey them successfully. There are many tools you can use. Some of those tools include idea mapping, outlining your thoughts, having open discussions, etc. If you need to, take extra time to get your thoughts clear so you don’t go down a road and then have to turn around and go back to where you started.
Be detailed when explaining your expectations
To set and explain clear expectations, it is very important to understand your audience. Your audience may have a lot of experience or limited experience. Either way, you should assume they know less than what you think they know. I say that in the sense that you will need to be very detailed in your explanation. Don’t be condescending when you explain your clear expectations because it will probably alienate the people you are trying to help. Explain your expectations very clearly so that the least experienced person can understand everything. It can be easy to get in a hurry and rush through your preparation and explanation because everything is so familiar to you, but if you do that, you will lose detail. The details are very important when explaining clear expectations.
Conclusion
As a leader, clear expectations are very important for the success of your organization. They are especially important In today’s economy, because they lead to the efficient use of your time, money, and efforts. When you are set clear expectations from the very beginning, you increase production and efficiency.
So what tips do you have for setting the clear expectations? How do you verify that those you lead understand your expectations? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!
I definitely relate to Jason and his situation. Recently, I also had an opportunity to set overall expectations of my team. I shared my vision, goals, and then we set expectations TOGETHER. So far it’s working out well because we are going in the same direction and I have their buy in on how we can define success. Thanks for the post.
Welcome Greg,
Thank you for taking the time to read the post and comment! As you mentioned, setting the expectations together is very important. It gets everyone on the same page when it is sincerely done together. I say, “sincerely” because I have seen some leaders say that we would set expectations together but in reality it was the leader setting the expectations for everyone and not really giving them any say. They only said “together” to try to gain credibility, but it actually had the opposite effect. Good luck to you and your group!
Go alone or with others or when guiding others clarify your goals and expectations.
Ascertain ensure you clarify your expectations elaborately to satisfaction of the self or any…….regards.
#Janakilaxman,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! It is so important to work to the satisfaction or at least agreement and understanding of all parties involved when it comes to having clear expectations.
While setting clear expectations is always a desired beginning, experience has shown that some “leaders” are simply not wired that way. For whatever reason, they do not know what they want, but know it once they see it. The result is a changing end-state due to there never really “being” an endstate or goal other than to satisfy the leader’s desire. While frustrating, I have seen some very good products developed in this fashion…even though it seems counter-intuitive. I believe the reason for this has to do with not knowing what is possible until options are presented. In other words, a leader may know they want a program that can perform something currently unavailable, yet not know enough about it to really know what the final product should look like or how it needs to perform. When the first draft reaches the leader’s desk, the leader has the ability to view a physical product that might inspire other thoughts and connections, which results in sending the product back to the drawing board…and the process can continue that way until the leader feels the product is “good enough for version 1.0. What “is” desired under these conditions is a leader that is honest about the process. To imply that “anything” will do, then send it back for half a dozen interations, is unfair to the worker trying to meet a changing goal. However, if the leader explains that they are not sure how the final product will look, and as such, requires their subordinate to work “in a specific direction” to see what is possible, and that any product received will be treated as a work in progress, not a finished product, the subordinate will not have the expectation of producing an end-state, and will be more open to changes because they were expected.
The other aspect of setting clear expectations is environmental. In other words, a leader should not only provide clear expectations on products, but on the work environment. For example, if the leader wants everyone called by their title or last name, or by their first name, the message should go out to all involved so that a single vision is shared as to what is expected…titles, protocols, work hours, and compensation should all be clearly defined…that way everyone knows what is expected of them without having to ask or use trial and error in lieu of simple communication.
Kevin,
What you have said is so true. I have seen leaders that told people to do something in such a way that the person thought they were expected to produce the end result right off the bat. When they weren’t able to do that, they felt discouraged and disheartened.
On the other hand, I have also seen the approach you mentioned where the leader requested a product under the premise that it would be a continual work in progress. This caused the people doing the work to be less stressed and more focused on the work they are doing. When they are more focused, they work with more creativity and they are able to get more work done.
It is amazing to see the difference between the two approaches and the effect each has on people. Thanks for sharing your insight on this!