How Clear (And Real) Are Your Expectations?

Many organizations have difficulty stating exactly what they want to have happen. In one case, a large retailer wanted to achieve a $50 million increase in sales within nine months in conjunction with a new wave of training in each store. However, in its first attempt, the company failed to clearly state its real expectation. Instead, its expectation sounded more like “getting everyone at every level trained in each store on time and on budget.” There’s a huge difference between these two expectations. How clear and real are the expectations in your organization or team? What about the expectations you hold for your people?

Here are a few signals indicating that your expectations may be unclear or unreal:

1. You wonder why the people you depend on just “don’t seem to get it.”
2. You are often disappointed with the results people deliver and routinely ask the question, “How did that happen?”
3. People feel that they often waste time working on things you ask them to do because your priorities often seem to change.
4. The people you work closest with are not able to articulate what is most important to you with any degree of certainty.
5. You tend to understate what you are really asking people to do because you don’t want to strain relationships.
6. You tend to assume people already have the vision of what needs to be done and, as a result, don’t take the needed time to form specific expectations.
7. You often have to re-explain and clarify with people what it is you really want.

To develop more effective expectations—expectations that are both real and clear—for your people, make sure you begin by asking, “What do I want to have happen?” Continue the process of developing effective expectations by using the FORM Checklist. This acronym reminds you to apply four crucial elements when forming a “key” expectation: Frameable, Obtainable, Repeatable, and Measureable. Frameable means ensuring the expectation is consistent with the organization’s cur­rent vision, strategy, and business priorities. Obtainable means ensuring the expectation is achievable in terms of the organization’s current resource and capacity constraints through the entire Expectations Chain. Repeatable means ensuring that the expectation is portable and can be clearly communicated through the chain. Measurable means ensuring that you can track progress toward achieving the expectation and measure the ultimate fulfillment of the expectation. Use the FORM Checklist as a practical device for helping your organization, your team, and your people to become more deliberate and conscious when establishing an expectation.