“Manage your expectations and you’ll manage
your disappointments.” – Todd Lohenry
The only element more important to a company’s success than client expectations is being able to manage employee expectations. In order to keep employees informed and content, a company needs to prioritize clarity, accountability, and understanding team roles. Employees should have clear outlines on what they should do, be accountable for their actions, and know how they function within the team.
Clarity
Clarity helps employees produce exactly what is needed to provide a great product or service. It also has the added benefits of streamlined communication and troubleshooting, which saves both the clients and the business money. How do you establish clear expectations? Provide a job description and have a meeting to walk through each employee. This may seem time consuming, but saves a lot of time in the long run. These guidelines are reinforced when the employee is held accountable for both the successes and failures of their work.
Accountability
Accountability is an integral part of maintaining consistency and success for every business. Every business has a hierarchy and every leader is responsible to hold everyone accountable for everything that happens in their work. A good leader accepts responsibility for their subordinates’ mistakes and then works with their subordinate to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. This kind of accountability helps the employees understand that their supervisor has as much risk as they do because they have to develop good employees and support them when needed. It creates a “we’re all in this together” mentality, so that everyone is invested to do their best.
Understanding Team Roles
When employees understand their responsibilities and the results of what they do, they get a big picture view of what makes their role important for everyone. They will work harder knowing what they need to produce, how their role plays into the bigger process, and how they are responsible to bring results.