Expectations

The last two posts were covering values and mission. When shared values and organisation’s mission are clear then it is time to set expectations for the members of the organisation.

Every leader have their expecations regarding people they lead. Same way all the followers have their expectations about the leaders. It is good to have common understanding what people expects instead of assuming. The good way to set the expectation is to have personal regular one-to-one feedback or coaching sessions. Those sessions are good for getting know each other better and for building trusted relationships. From my experience, it is good to have meeting minutes or memo from the meeting which is shared after the meeting. The memo is also good for reviewing the last sessions action points.

Reviewing how people live with expectations

In the one-to-one discussion it is good to review how people have lived by their expectations. This is also good way to review how leader has lived by expectations. When both parties find out that they have fulfilled expectations then it builds trust and deepen the relationship. Another way round, if neither of parties haven’t lived by expectations it will build distrust between leaders and followers.

Expectations can be easily managed by creating goals for the team members which benefit both employee and organisation. Once in a three month it is good set both goals and expectation and after the three months both are reviewed. When goals are set so that there is expectation component, it will give more clear message for the employee. When both, goals and expectations are met it is easy for example reward the member and the organisation

How did I do it?

I have arranged once in a quarter one-to-one feedback session with my team. In the session we discuss about what has happen during the last three months. We review together how goals were met and then discuss together how next period would look like. This is the moment where expectations are reviewed. If I have expected to have e.g. weekly report how release testing is progressing then we review together is this expectation met. This is good example since if the testing manager needs coaching, the first thing is to manage expectations regarding habits of test manager. Since the habits are in place then we can add more challenge for the next period e.g. how testing efforts are managed to get more test coverage etc. This can be easily applied to different context where people are coached.

What do you think about expectations and managing them?