What Did You Expect?

Sometimes, an employee disappoints his manager.

He zigs when he should’ve zagged. He makes a bad decision. He makes a mistake of some kind. Managers sometimes struggle to deal with these situations – they shake their heads, they wring their hands, they talk to themselves… They simply cannot understand why an employee wouldn’t know what they should have done.

Let me share an example from a conversation I recently had with a client. He has an employee that will occasionally do some handyman-type work for him, who completes the work after-hours or on the weekends. He and the employee agreed on an hourly rate for this work, and he has been mostly pleased with the results. Recently, however, he asked the employee to complete some of this type of work at the company during work hours, and was quite surprised when the employee submitted an invoice for his hourly rate. Surprised because the employee was on the clock and drawing an hourly wage from the company.

His expectation was that the employee would surely understand that any work done on the clock would not be eligible for additional hourly pay. This is not an unreasonable expectation, and I suspect most people would assume an employee would understand something this simple. Unfortunately, any time a manager makes assumptions and/or fails to establish mutual expectations for a task, no matter how “simple”, there will inevitably be problems.

In all situations, a manager must communicate expectations clearly – particularly when it comes to performance. It is nearly impossible to hold someone accountable to a standard that does not exist! You may think it exists, but you should ask yourself if your employees know EXACTLY what you expect from them.

In another example, I recently talked to a sales manager who was upset with the performance of a salesperson who routinely discounted his company’s products too deeply. You guessed it – there are no guidelines for the salesperson to follow in determining pricing.

Take a moment and think about some of the situations that create stress for you as a manager – especially the circumstances that cause you to be disappointed in an employee’s performance. Can you say with absolute certainty that the employee knows what your expectations for performance are?

If not, quit blaming the employee. Communicate your expectations.