Set Expectations That Stick

“I shouldn’t have to tell them that.”

I’ve heard managers say some version of this throughout my career, and I understand the frustration behind it. An employee fails to follow up with a customer, makes a decision the manager wanted to be involved in, misses a deadline without warning anyone, or turns in work that clearly isn’t what the manager expected. The manager looks at the situation and thinks, They should know better.

Sometimes they should.

But there is a question every manager should ask before arriving at that conclusion: Did they actually know what I expected, or did it simply seem obvious to me?

There is a bigger difference between those two questions than most managers realize.

We spend all day operating with expectations that live inside our heads. We know what “urgent” means. We know how polished a presentation should be before it reaches a customer. We know when we expect someone to make a decision independently and when we want to be consulted. We know what “keep me informed” means. We know what taking ownership looks like.

At least we know what those things mean to us.

Then we become frustrated when someone else interprets them differently.

Unspoken expectations eventually become unfair expectations.

The Clarity Problem Is Bigger Than We Think

Gallup has spent decades studying what employees need to perform well, and the very first statement in its well-known Q12 employee engagement assessment is remarkably simple:

“I know what is expected of me at work.”

You would think this would be one of the easiest things for an organization to get right. Give people a job description, explain their responsibilities, set some goals, and get to work.

Yet Gallup's recent research found that fewer than half of employees strongly agree that they know what is expected of them at work.

Think about that for a moment.

Imagine walking onto a football field where half the players aren't completely sure about their assignment on the next play. Or running a restaurant where half the employees have slightly different definitions of what great service looks like.

We would immediately recognize the problem.

At work, ambiguity is much easier to hide. People stay busy. Emails get answered. Meetings happen. Projects move forward. Then something goes wrong and the manager discovers that the employee has been operating with a completely different understanding of the expectation.

This is one reason clarity is such an important management skill. The best managers don't simply assign work. They create a shared understanding of what success looks like.

Even Experts Need Reminders

There is a wonderful management lesson in a book that isn't really a management book at all.

Atul Gawande is a surgeon and the author of The Checklist Manifesto. He became fascinated by a problem facing modern medicine: highly trained, intelligent, experienced professionals sometimes make surprisingly basic mistakes.

The issue isn't always knowledge. Surgeons know what they're doing. Pilots know how to fly airplanes. Engineers know how to construct buildings. The problem is that complex environments contain so many moving parts that even experts can overlook things they absolutely know.

Gawande explored how aviation uses checklists to combat this problem. Pilots don't use them because they are incapable of remembering that the landing gear needs to come down. They use them because some things are too important to leave to memory, interpretation, or assumption.

Medicine began applying the same idea.

The lesson for managers isn't that every workplace needs another checklist. Lord knows we don't need to turn every office into a cockpit.

The lesson is much simpler:

Important things shouldn't depend on “they should know.”

If something truly matters, make it clear.

“Do a Great Job” Isn't an Expectation

This is where managers often believe they've communicated more clearly than they actually have.

We tell someone to “be more proactive.”

What does proactive mean?

We tell someone they need to “communicate better.”

How often? About what? With whom?

We tell someone to “take more ownership.”

Does that mean making decisions without asking? Bringing recommendations instead of problems? Following something all the way through without reminders?

We tell someone to “be more responsive.”

Does that mean five minutes, two hours, or one business day?

These phrases aren't useless. They describe qualities we want. But until the manager translates them into observable behavior, two intelligent people can walk away with very different interpretations.

Imagine telling an employee:

“I need you to do a better job keeping me informed.”

The employee might reasonably respond by copying you on more emails.

That may not be what you wanted at all.

Now consider:

“If you believe a project is at risk of missing its deadline, I want to know as soon as you recognize the risk. Don't wait until the day it's due.”

That's an expectation.

Or instead of:

“I want you to take more ownership.”

Try:

“When you bring me a problem, I want you to have thought through it first and come with at least one recommendation for what you think we should do.”

Now I know what ownership looks like to you. Specificity gives people something they can actually act on.
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THE BOUNDLESS NEWSLETTER IS SPONSORED BY GATHER SURVEYS

Andy Grove Understood the Manager's Real Job

One of the best books about management was written more than 40 years ago by Andy Grove, the legendary former CEO of Intel.

High Output Management doesn't treat management as a collection of motivational speeches or personality traits. Grove approaches it almost like an engineer. Managers have inputs, processes, leverage points, measurements, and outputs. Their responsibility is to create an environment where a team can produce the right results.

That way of thinking changes how you set expectations.

A weak manager focuses heavily on activity.

A strong manager thinks carefully about the desired outcome.

Suppose I tell a salesperson, “Make 40 calls today.” That's very clear, but it may not be the clarity I actually need. The person could make 40 terrible calls and technically meet my expectation.

What outcome am I trying to create?

Maybe what really matters is generating five qualified conversations with prospective customers. The calls are simply one path to that outcome.

Gallup's early research on great managers reached a similar conclusion: define the right outcomes and give talented people room to find their own route toward them.

That's the difference between clarity and control.

And managers need to understand that difference.

Clear Expectations Are Not Micromanagement

Some managers resist becoming more specific because they don't want to micromanage.

That's a good instinct.

Adults generally don't want a manager hovering over them explaining every step. Great employees especially need room to think, experiment, solve problems, and use their own judgment.

But clarity and autonomy aren't opposites.

In fact, clarity can create autonomy.

When I understand the destination, the boundaries, and what success looks like, I need my manager less.

If you tell me the result you need, the quality standard, the deadline, and where my decision-making authority begins and ends, you can often get out of my way.

The problem occurs when the destination is fuzzy and the manager still expects the employee to arrive at exactly the right place.

That's not empowerment.

That's guessing.

Five Things Your Team Shouldn't Have to Guess

When managers think about expectations, they usually think about tasks: What do I need this person to accomplish?

That's only part of the conversation.

There are at least five things people need to understand.

Results: What needs to happen?

Standards: What does good work look like?

Timing: When does it need to happen?

Authority: What can I decide without you?

Communication: When do you need to know?

The last two create an enormous amount of unnecessary friction in organizations.

A manager tells an employee, “I want you to take more ownership.”

So the employee makes a decision.

The manager responds, “Why didn't you check with me first?”

Next time the employee checks.

The manager responds, “You don't need to bring every little decision to me. Just handle it.”

Now imagine being the employee.

Should I take ownership or ask permission?

The answer is probably both, depending on the situation. But unless the manager defines that boundary, the employee has to discover it through trial and error.

Good managers say things like, “You can make any decision involving less than $2,500 without me. Above that, let's talk.”

Or, “Handle normal customer issues however you think is appropriate. If you're considering a refund above this amount, bring me in.”

Or simply, “I don't need to know every detail. But if the deadline, budget, or customer relationship becomes at risk, tell me immediately.”

That is what clarity sounds like.

Before Accountability Comes Clarity

Last week, I wrote about addressing underperformance early. There is an important connection between that lesson and this one.

Managers need to hold people accountable.

But before accountability can be fair, expectations have to be clear.

You can't reasonably tell someone they aren't meeting the standard if the standard has been living exclusively inside your head.

That doesn't remove personal responsibility. Employees are adults. They should ask questions, use judgment, take initiative, learn their roles, and own their performance.

But managers have a responsibility too.

Before I hold you accountable, I owe you clarity.

Once the expectation is understood, responsibility can move where it belongs.

The progression looks something like this:

Clarity → Ownership → Feedback → Accountability

That is a much healthier management system than allowing vague expectations to simmer for months and then becoming frustrated when someone fails to meet them.

Try the Expectation Test

Here's something I'd encourage every manager to try.

Choose one person who reports to you.

Without talking to them first, write down the five most important expectations you have for their role. Don't write their entire job description. Think about the five things that would make you say, If this person consistently does these things well, they're succeeding.

Then ask them to do the same exercise from their perspective:

“What do you believe are the five most important things I expect from you?”

Put the lists beside each other.

I'm genuinely curious what you'd find.

Maybe they'll match almost perfectly. That's a wonderful sign.

But maybe you'll discover that something you consider critically important doesn't appear on their list at all.

Maybe one of their top priorities is something you barely care about.

Maybe they believe you want to approve decisions you actually want them to make independently.

Maybe they're spending enormous energy trying to meet an expectation you didn't realize you were communicating.

Don't treat those differences as the employee getting the exercise wrong.

Treat them as information.

You have just discovered ambiguity before it became a performance problem.

Don't Make People Read Your Mind

Management gets complicated quickly. We talk about motivation, accountability, engagement, culture, performance, coaching, emotional intelligence, and dozens of other skills managers need to develop.

But sometimes good management comes down to remarkably ordinary conversations.

What does success look like?

What's most important?

When do you need this?

What decisions can I make?

When should I involve you?

How will we know whether this is working?

Those questions aren't glamorous. You probably won't see them printed on a leadership poster.

But answering them well can transform how a team operates.

Because the goal of setting expectations isn't to control how people work. It's to remove enough ambiguity that good people can use their talent, judgment, and initiative without constantly wondering whether they're headed in the right direction.

So the next time you hear yourself thinking, They should know that, stop for a moment.

Maybe they should.

But if it matters enough to be disappointed when they don't, it probably matters enough to make sure they do.

Your team shouldn't have to read your mind to do a great job.

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Onward.