Managing Expectations
“One of the most memorable moments in my journey of embracing healthy expectations occurred in 10th grade. I was honored to be elected as the Head Girl of my school's student council. This prestigious position came with tremendous expectations from the student body, as they looked to me for leadership.
In the planning of our school's sports day, a major event for both the school and the council, the importance of setting appropriate expectations became evident. I learned that not setting clear expectations left the team longing for guidance and unity, while setting excessively high expectations resulted in the team crumbling under the pressure of underperforming. To prove themselves, the team turned this much-awaited event into a burdensome chore.
This experience opened my eyes to the fact that expectations go beyond being mere burdens or ideals. Their true purpose is to create a vision and bring clarity to those involved. I have come a long way in accepting and embracing healthy expectations, transforming my perception of them from sources of dread and unease to beacons of clarity and relief. This growth has influenced how I set expectations for myself and others, ensuring the expectations I set are realistic, inspiring, and beneficial for everyone involved.”
- Saumya Shinde, Connection Labs Intern
Having achievable goals both at work and in our personal lives is important, as clear expectations help maintain motivation and boost our productivity. Goals can help us organize our time, channel our inspiration, and challenge us to reach our potential. Setting goals for oneself is an invaluable tool for personal growth, while a manager's ability to establish goals - or expectations - for their employees is of equal importance. Expectations can be a major managerial asset, but for expectations to be effective, they must be intentionally designed. Goals must be ambitious enough to encourage productivity, without venturing into the realm of impracticality — where feelings of inadequacy and burnout lie in wait. Additionally, establishing challenging yet attainable expectations in the workplace is a form of setting boundaries, which is a key element of building trust on a team and engendering a healthy office culture.
Did you know?
Encouraging employees to strive towards a shared goal increases engagement at work and harnesses employee talent and performance potential. However, workplace expectations that are overly ambitious can render goals unattainable, leaving employees feeling discouraged. Studies have shown that companies do not fulfill strategic change expectations 70% of the time. Such a strong majority of unmet goals is detrimental, as failing to achieve set goals can train your subconscious to falsely believe that you are incapable of achieving your goals, and can lead to burnout and a subsequent decrease in quality of work.
A corollary of unrealistic expectations is the creation of an office environment that is psychologically unsafe. Unrealistic expectation setting, paired with a lack of patience for unmet goals, may leave coworkers nervous to admit mistakes, and can thus result in flawed products being pushed out to meet rushed deadlines. Instead, encouraging the acknowledgment and ownership of mistakes without imposing severe consequences can create a culture of collaboration that brings employees together to overcome challenges. When expectations in the workplace are feasible and flexible, employees feel more comfortable establishing their own boundaries, enabling a shared sense of understanding and respect among coworkers and superiors.
Using goals as a tool of encouragement and enhancement of psychological safety requires intentionality. This means being clear when establishing expectations and making sure employees understand what they are striving towards. Goals should be measurable and feasible, and introduced a reasonable time in advance. Employees must be held accountable for measurable goals that are set, and should be encouraged to communicate if they feel that they need more flexibility. Expectations should also be tethered to the values of the company, as employees who understand the driving force behind a goal exhibit increased productivity, critical thinking, and confidence.
Awareness, Context, Intention
Building Awareness: Where do your goals fall right now? Does your team struggle to complete them by the provided deadline, do you cruise through them effortlessly, or do you fall somewhere in the middle?
Considering Context: Whether you are establishing your expectations of others or evaluating others’ expectations of you, consider how these goals compare to those that you set for yourself. Keeping in mind that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses, is there a difference in the feasibility of your expectations in different life contexts?
Setting Intention: The next time you set a professional goal, write it down and place it somewhere you will see it often. Communicate with your team to establish boundaries to ensure that your goal is encouraging and achievable. Ask a colleague to help hold you accountable for it. Set a timeline for yourself and check in on your goal regularly.
Tap into your strengths
As always, we recommend tapping into your strengths in order to be your most effective self. In regards to setting goals at work, try keeping a few of these in mind:
Use honesty with yourself to determine what is realistic and fair.
Use perspective to consider what each goal means for you and for others — just because it’s easy for you doesn’t mean it is for everybody!
Use forgiveness when things go wrong; encourage employees to own their mistakes.
Use fairness to ensure work is spread equitably.
Finally, use curiosity to get feedback on the goals you establish — goal-setting shouldn’t be an individual process!
