The Importance of Setting Expectations

Expectations, Standards, Goals, Measures, Criteria, Benchmarks, Accountabilities. Whatever you call them, make sure you have them.
Setting expectations is the foundation of good management skills. First, it shows that you are confident about what you want and you are able to make decisions. If you have no standards you have nothing to communicate, nothing to give feedback on and nothing to hold people accountable for.
Secondly, people want to know what is expected of them. They want to know what value they add and why they are coming to work. Most people want to do a good job and they will not disappoint if you give them something to strive for.
There are two basic components to setting expectations:
1) Identify the categories you want to measure
2) Define acceptable measuresr
First, identify the key categories:
An easy way to define the categories you want to measure is to take the categories from your annual performance review. This also makes performance reviews more meaningful because no one is surprised about what they are being reviewed on. It would be devastating for someone to work really hard at meeting your expectations all year only to find out at the end of the year that it doesn’t count for anything.
The categories will vary depending on your industry and the job level but your categories might include: Productivity, Customer Service, Time Management, Communication, and Technical Skills. The key is to include enough criteria to provide a well-rounded view of the job but not to try to cover every single detail.
Second, define acceptable measures for each category that you selected:
Define acceptable measures that apply to everyone in the same job classification, or in the same job level. Each job class will have its definition of success and a function that is critical to one job may not be critical to another.
Resist the temptation to be too general or too narrow in your definition. Two to three sentences for each category will suffice. Clear and concise is the key. Complicated does not equal productive.
If you are setting the expectation for a productivity measure – sales goals, data processing, etc – be sure identify acceptable standards for time in job. For instance, a processor with 0 – 3 months experience might be expected to process 75 transactions per day while a processor with one year or more experience should be able to process 125+ transactions per day.
Be fair when you set the expectations. If you base the standard off your best performer you risk de-motivating the rest of the team. Aiming too low will produce the same effect. You can always find extra opportunities for your top performers to go above and beyond and keep them motivated.
Finally, the most critical step – communicate! Get everyone on the same page. If you are rolling out this all important document to an existing team that you have been managing for a while let them know why you are doing it and what the benefits are. It is best to communicate in a team meeting so everyone gets the same message. Make it part of the onboarding process for new hires to ensure they know what is expected of them from the start.
An investment of a couple hours of your time developing this tool will have a tremendous pay off in terms of productivity, increased performance, and less time spent dealing with performance issues.