Great Expectations. I’m certainly not much for the book. But, then again, I’m no English major. No one will confuse me with my Ph.D.-to-be daughter, the English Major Extraordinaire (I can’t even read her papers – way over my head.) My memory of Great Expectations was suffering through it in high school English class, which was akin to having a debilitating migraine complicated by a third-degree sunburn on the top of your feet.

Great expectations in the workplace, on the other hand, is a whole different ballgame (ahhh…a sports metaphor – something I can understand). In fact, creating clear expectations with employees can be the difference between an effectively functioning workplace and a serious mess.

Unfortunately, most managers – by their own admission – don’t set or communicate expectations very well. Instead, they often simply assign work or projects without creating performance measurements or expectations. The result is often a considerable amount of frustration on both sides. In fact, if performance expectations aren’t clearly communicated, how can a manager effectively manage or critique performance?

You Must Set a Performance Standard

Consider this common example from an analogous situation: Early on, parents learn about the dangers of failing to establish expectations when they ask their kids to “clean their rooms.” In the absence of clear expectations for what a “clean room” looks like, the results of that request often lead to a simple question: “Uh, what exactly did you pick up?”Until the performance result is clearly defined, kids are left to interpret what “clean your room” means to them, and the same is true for employees – although, admittedly, not usually to the same degree.

Without a clear performance standard, the employee may be willing to accept a result less than what a manager has in mind. Without performance standards and measurements, it is difficult to assess performance, coach improvements, or even hold an employee accountable. Further, without clearly communicated expectations, performance assessment becomes mostly subjective; like competing in the 100-yard dash without timing the event. Sure, you know who won, but was the performance average or exemplary? Can we get better or is that the best we can do?

To see where you stand, ask yourself these questions:

• Do your employees know exactly what is expected of them?
• What measurement do you use to assess performance?
• Is the measurement readily available?
• How often do you assess performance?
• Do you train (and coach) for improvements against a standard of performance?

I know that every aspect of workplace performance cannot be graded, nor should it be. However, without defining clear performance expectations in some area of an employee’s work, you are setting yourself up for a confrontation that will create more problems that it ever hopes to solve.

If you want to make a quantum leap as a manager, there is something you should start doing right away. Don’t allow another day go by without making this one management practice a consistent habit. Your stress levels will decrease, and employee productivity is likely to increase. Of course, how much each of those – stress and productivity – is impacted will be dependent upon some other variables, too, but you can address those as well.

In training managers in different sized companies, in different industries, with a variety of experience, and a diversity of backgrounds, I have found that this particular habit is one in which managers grade themselves quite poorly. “The question asked is this: Do your employees know exactly what your performance expectations are for them?” On a scale of 1 to 10, the cumulative average response is 6.68 out of 10. That is 66.8% – barely passing on a traditional grading scale; somewhere around “Sometimes” on the descriptive scale.

Sometimes? Sometimes employees know what your expectations are? No wonder the stress is high and the train wrecks occur more frequently than we would like.

Further discussions generally lead to even worse conclusions. That is, managers generally admit that the reason they scored themselves that well (66.8%) is due to job descriptions and employee manuals – after all, these documents tell employees what is expected of them, don’t they? Hmmm. Not really. The truth is, managers are not consistently communicating their expectations for performance with their employees, and the consequences are more than significant.

When discussing expectations, we are really discussing expectations for results. What RESULTS do you expect? Some results are measurable – sales revenue, for instance. Some are not as readily measurable – customer satisfaction is a good example. Here is another: All employees will treat each other with respect and professionalism at all times. Another: We will do everything in our power to delight our customers, not just satisfy them.
“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.”

Charles Kettering

The point is that managers are often guilty of criticizing employee performance without clearly establishing their expectations for that performance. Think about it – how many times do you assume that your employees know what you expect? I think you will find that the answer is much more often than you would like. And this is critically important during performance appraisals – do your employees know exactly how they will be graded? Do they know what measures are used to actually grade their performance.

We ask managers that question, too. “Do your employees know what measures are used to grade their performance?” Score: 5.71. Definitely failing. Somewhere around “Occasionally.”

If employees are at all unclear about performance expectations – in any area – and are further unclear about the measures that are used to grade their performance, how effective will they be in their jobs?

If you find yourself asking why your employees seem to fall short more than you think they should, let me ask you: “What did you expect?”