We all have great expectations. But, guess what, your team can't meet yours unless you explain those expectations to them.
They've got to understand what your expectations are in order to deliver what you want them to deliver. As their leader, it's your job to make those goals and objectives come to life. You do that by describing and engaging their imagination about what “good looks like.” You do that by showing them how achieving those aims is good for them, too!
Every staff member at Amazon, for example, understands Jeff Bezos’ expectation of them. In fact, he even put it in writing all the way back in 1997. When he said:
“When I interview people, I tell them, you can work long. You can work hard, or smart. But at Amazon, you don't get the chance to choose two out of three.”
Now, that sounds kind of cute, right! But the true genius of Bezos shines through because he did an outstanding job at setting expectations. Everybody at Amazon, to this day, understands that it's an environment where you're going to work long, hard and smart – as a result a take no prisoners type of culture took shape and stuck.
The kind of culture that you want to establish is entirely up to you, of course. However, setting expectations is absolutely critical to ensuring it’s one of high performance.
Keys To High Performing Cultures
Once the goals and objectives are set, there are several important things a leader can do to fine-tune the workplace culture for high performance. Here are three ideas worth pursuing:
1. Develop your team’s capabilities. Goal-setting and education are two separate and distinct activities. Both are required when transforming your team. Goal-setting is essential to ensuring that everyone understand the end-game. But, staff buy-in and reducing the feelings of friction that often accompany the pursuit of hefty objectives requires confidence. Staff member confidence comes through education and experience. Experience happens over time, of course. However, you can control the education part. Be sure to prepare your team for success by providing necessary training and coaching so that they can at a high level.
2. Strengthen your resilience. There is no question that resilient people make resilient cultures. Consequently, each team member must learn the mental techniques and actions needed for protecting themselves from the everyday stressors that come with the job. The degree to which you bake this into your thinking and behavior can positively impact your team’s performance. This means that if you demonstrate resilience through the way that you interact and lead them, your team will come to believe that, they too, can take things in stride. Should it be necessary, fold resiliency training into your team’s development plans
3. Shift your mindset from micro-management to team-based outcomes. This can be accomplished by providing your people with the latitude to do what it takes to deliver on your expectations. Of course, poor performing employees will still need some intervention on your part, but then, the emphasis must be on outcomes, not watching what the staff is doing – every moment of every day – that gets tiresome for everybody involved, including you! Just stop it.
To Sum
Indeed, we all have great expectations.
An exceptional leader recognizes that leadership means getting things done through the efforts of the people whom we lead.
It’s up to us to first set the bar and, then, prepare our teams to clear it. We do that by bringing our best leadership techniques to the table!