Setting Expectations

Originally published on March 25, 2016

When working with new leaders, I try to stress the idea that people will rise to your expectations, but with an added caveat… They will also fall to them. Around this idea I want to make a distinction between expectations and goals. Overall, I think leaders have a pretty good understanding of goal setting and how people will rise to meet challenging goals but it’s setting effective expectations that we so often neglect.

I’ll give you an example. As a trainer, I see this often when I’m working with inexperienced facilitators in classroom settings. Put a group of people into a classroom and it’s easy to understand how we can be reminded of being back in school. The idea of setting expectations is where we can elevate the experience and this starts from the facilitator. If you treat the situation, and the individuals, like a class in school, that is what you are going to get. However, if you elevate the experience and treat it like a business, with clear goals, objectives, and rules of engagement, you get something worthwhile for everyone. A good facilitator does not view themselves as “in charge” but rather as someone providing a service for a group of customers. Put another way, your success as a facilitator is not defined by how well you controlled the “class,” but rather by the success of your “customers,” due to the knowledge they gained.

Take this idea to a work group. How do you, as a leader, set expectations? Do you spend your day commanding and directing, or do you spend it partnering and empowering? What does your list of expectations look like? Instead of saying “be on time” and then focusing on getting your people to their desks at a specific time, focus on what would motivate someone to “be on time,” why they should and what the positive results would be. What is getting in the way of “being on time?” This elevates the expectations, they cease to be a list of rules and guidelines to be followed. They become keys to success.

When we have expectations that are presented as a list of rules then you will have individuals that will “fall to those expectations.” However, establish expectations through partnership and empowerment, and you can elevate them and individuals will “rise to your expectations.”