How to Align Management and Employee Expectations for Better Results and Happier People

Duration: 90 minutes

How many times have you heard about this situation?

• A manager politely requests that a task be done.
• The employee completes the task, thinking they’ve exceeded expectations. 
• The manager accepts the employee’s work, but is secretly disappointed with the results. 
• The employee is secretly disappointed that the manager’s feedback was underwhelming

This common scenario is likely to cause the manager to jump to one of three conclusions: 1) if I want a job done right, I have to do it myself, 2) this employee’s work ethic isn’t as strong as I thought, or 3) this employee is not as skilled as I thought.

Most of the time all 3 conclusions are inaccurate, but they will affect the way the manager views the employee in future interactions.

The real problem is the expectations that the manager and the employee each had going into the situation, but failed to clearly state.

According to Dr. Eric Dent, leadership expert, executive coach and professor of leadership theory, the primary issue impacting productivity and morale in organizations is a difference in expectations and assumptions which need to be made explicit.

But that’s a lot easier stated than practiced. You can’t ask employees to carry a sign around clearly displaying their personal expectations. So each organization needs a mechanism for removing the stigma from personal assumptions and bringing them to the surface in a non-threatening, productive way.