Do you know what is expected of you at your job? If you're a people leader, does your team know exactly what is expected of them?
According to Gallup's Q12 survey, less than half of workers know what was expected of them at work.
I don't know about you, but I find it incredibly challenging to be successful and exceed (let alone meet) expectations when I don't know what those expectations are. . . 🤔
And as a people leader, I'd find it exceptionally difficult to build the right culture, coach our team, and retain top talent if expectations aren't clear and flowing freely throughout the team.
That's why I roll out Expectation Loops with my teams and department early and often.
Ready to read the word "expectations" until it sounds like a silly made up word? Great! Lets go.
Having Expectations Is the Expectation
If you're a people leader, you exist to make your reps successful through coaching and behavior change. You can't coach if you don't have any expectations for your team (or if you haven't communicated those expectations).
You need to understand CLEARLY what you expect for your team.
In fact, there are 5 core principles that we train every new and/or prospective leader, the first one is getting expectations right. Why?
"The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw
Getting expectations right has SO many benefits:
Building the right culture
Improving employee experience
Creating ideal coaching opportunities
Driving employee growth
Retaining your top talent
etc.
Getting expectations right also means openly communicating those expectations with your team, then living, practicing, and emulating them going forward.
👉🏻 👉🏻 You need to be a walking audition of what you expect of your team.
None of that "Do as I say, not as I do" mentality here. . .
Department vs. Rep Expectations
There's a big difference between building department-level expectations and crafting individual rep expectations. Both are equally important and have a specific place.
Department-Level Expectations | Rep-Level Expectations |
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Department Expectations should become foundational and shouldn't regularly change (evolve if needed). Rep-Level expectations are specific to the individual you're coaching and can change based on what is needed for them to see success in their role.
Each rep should have an individualized development plan - I call these Employee Outcomes Strategies. It's ultimately what success looks like for your rep and how to achieve it.
Expectation Loops
If you're a people leader, building out expectations loops is incredibly simple, and is based on three core elements:
You know what you expect
Your Reps know what you expect
You know what your reps expect
Let's go through each one
You Know What You Expect:
As a leader, it's crucial to have a clear understanding of what you expect from your team members in terms of performance, behavior, and values. Need help coming up with your list? Here are a few questions to get you started:
What type of culture do you want for your team?
What are the goals of your team, department, company?
Do you have a mission statement?
(Spoil alert, I only have 3 department-level expectations. Feel free to use the same ones 👇🏻)
Your Reps Know What You Expect:
You know what you expect of your team? Great! Now communicate it with them.
This is where 50% of the workforce is sitting. They don't know what is expected of them (which means, they don't know what they need to be doing to see success in their career).
Make sure your team members understand these expectations and how they align with the overall goals of the organization.
There isn't necessarily a wrong place for communicating these, but my favorite way of doing this is to go through a presentation of my 3 expectations during a team meeting, and then meet in a 1x1 setting to ensure they clearly understood what is expected of them, and understand what expectations they have of me.
You Know What Your Reps Expect:
Lastly, fostering an environment where your team members feel comfortable expressing their expectations, concerns, and aspirations is essential for building trust and rapport. It's also essential for driving your reps' growth.
So ask them: "What expectations do you have for me? What expectations do you have for leadership in general?"
Learn what is important to them and how you can both support each other in career development and growth.
Document this in your 1x1 document for each rep. This way you don't forget it, and it shows that its actually important to your employee.
My Three Department-Level Expectations
These are the three department-level expectations that I have for anyone in the department. I've used these as foundational expectations in dozens of companies - and they work.
Expectation #1: Irrefutable Integrity
“Jim, for 25 cents I can maintain my integrity. A dollar, questionable, but 25 cents—no, not for 25 cents.”
My favorite example of this is from Richard Edgley and a newspaper vending machine (no need to google what that is, I added the image above just for you 😅).
Nearly 40+ years ago, he was walking through the Chicago O'Hare airport with very prominent business people, one of which had just sold his company for tens of millions of dollars—in other words, these were not, by any means, poor people.
In his words:
"As we were passing a newspaper vending machine, this individual put a quarter in the machine, opened the door to the stack of papers inside the machine, and began dispensing unpaid-for newspapers to each of us. When he handed me a newspaper, I put a quarter in the machine and, trying not to offend but to make a point, jokingly said, “Jim, for 25 cents I can maintain my integrity. A dollar, questionable, but 25 cents—no, not for 25 cents."
Bottom line? Integrity drives accountability, and allows A-players to thrive in highly autonomous environments. Also, there's no such thing as a "minor lapse of integrity."
You need a team with high integrity, as they don't require baby-sitting or micromanaging (both of which are a waste of time and culture killers).
Expectation #2: Relentless Optimism
Staying optimistic isn't easy. It is physiologically easier to be pessimistic. So you got your own body working against you at times.
But optimism is a staple of high-performing reps, teams, and cultures.
Think of some of the best teams you've been on. Who were the best reps? Who were the best leaders? How did they act and react in difficult situations?
Were they the ones that looked for solutions and rallied the team to follow suit? Or were they the ones that complained every chance they could and brought down the overall morale?
If you build a team where pessimism and toxic-complaining is viewed as "okay" behavior, it will sweep the department like a cancer. And unfortunately, the only way return to a healthy state is to remove the cancer cells from the host.
Optimism doesn't necessarily mean keeping a happy/smiling demeanor. It means that you're motivated and willing to find solutions to whatever problems arise.
You need people that waive the rally flag and roll up their sleeves when sh!t hits the fan. Because it will.
Expectation #3: Willing Vulnerability
"I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Some of the most successful reps and leaders I've worked with know how to fail, hold themselves accountable, and then get back to work.
One of my all-time favorite quotes from the G.O.A.T. (yes, the true 🐐) Michael Jordan:
"I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
Allowing and empowering your team to be vulnerable leads them to Innovate, take calculated risks, scale, AND take ownership when things blow-up—without the fear of losing their jobs.
You need people that admit when they're wrong and take accountability for their actions.
Fear of failure will stunt your growth. Fear of accountability will lead to defeat.
A System of Expectations
Each one of these expectations work in a system to help support the other two.
→ Having integrity helps protect and shield you if (more like when) mistakes happen and things fall apart.
→ When you have integrity, it then becomes significantly easier to stay positive and energizes you (and those around you as well).
→Maintaining the positivity empowers you to build courage through vulnerability—which in return help you learn and be more successful.
It's hard to maintain this type of high-performance of culture if you remove just one of these expectations.
But remember, setting these expectations is one thing. Being the shining example of them to your team is what is required here.
In Summary
Communication and accountability are crucial in working in a tech-startup. Feedback loops is one of the easiest ways to keep communication flowing throughout your team.
You need to develop and maintain your teams. And remember, employees don’t usually leave when they have a reason to leave, they leave when they no longer have a compelling enough reason to stay.
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