Demand clear expectations and set them with your team in return
2 December 2024
Do you know what would cause your manager to give you a ‘meets expectations’ rating at your next performance review? What about ‘exceeds expectations’?
Have you asked them? It’s tough to hit a target that you can’t see.
And I’m not talking about: “Do [this] and [this] and [some other thing].” That’s not expectation setting, that’s micromanagement.
I mean: What kind of results, outcomes or impact would warrant an assessment of, ‘you met (or went beyond) what was expected’?
This topic comes up surprisingly often in coaching conversations. I ask: “What are you aiming to achieve?”
The person replies, “[this] and [that] and [something else].”
“Okay, will that meet your manager’s expectations of you?”
“...ah, I really don’t know...”
Employees - demand clear expectations
You deserve to know what you manager’s expectations of you are. That’s not entitlement, that’s good communication. Would you work for an undefined salary that was only revealed at the end of each month?
Clear expectations are the norm when it comes to renumeration. Job performance deserves to be no different.
This is a conversation to be upfront about with your manager. You’re honestly asking so you can prioritise your work and build shared understanding between the two of you. It’s not a box ticking exercise or a request for itemised tasks.
Your manager may not have a clear answer, or may insist on what you consider to be unrealistic expectations. However they respond, see it as an opportunity for dialogue. Why these expectations? How does your role contribute to the team/company objectives? What support will your manager offer you?
Significant collaboration and trust can grow from this dialogue. I remember having a conversation of this nature with one of my managers and discovering that one of their slightly unusual expectations of me related to the way they were being measured in turn. This sparked a reframe, some joint work and, ultimately, a solid performance win for both of us.
This is always a case of SFTU - Seek First To Understand.
People Managers - set clear expectations
As a manager of people you are accountable for communicating the expectations you have of each of your team members so that they understand how their job performance will be assessed.
This doesn’t mean arbitrary delegation or to-do lists: “I want you to do [this specific thing] then [that specific thing].”
It means having a clear understanding of how the role that each person is in contributes to the objectives of the team and the organisation. I say ‘role’ here specifically because its important to frame job performance in terms of assessing the work, not the human.
A great way of approaching this is to use the role guide for the position in question (if such a thing exists in the organisation), or a document outlining the purpose of the position and the ways it contributes to overall company success.
For example, at Atlassian we had a role guide for each design position, from Grad Designer on up. It outlined the kinds of impact expected across areas such as: design delivery, team uplift, user focus, project influence, etc.
When I set expectations with a direct report, I used these role guides to connect each aspect of the position in question, e.g. project influence, with the specifics of how an expectation could be met, or exceeded, based on where that individual was in the organisation.
Again, this is not: “Do [this], then do [that].”
It’s: “This role needs to ensure we ship product experiences based on user data by gaining buy-in from senior managers. For [the direct report in question], it means [this core product experience] needs [an agreed measurable uplift] in [agreed user metrics] by [an agreed time].”
Two things here:
- I am connecting the company-level role expectations with the specifics of the individual’s job. This is not some arbitrary goal I invented for this person to meet.
- The measurable outcome is agreed. We talked about it and aligned on targets that we’re both happy with. This builds motivation and buy-in.
I keep emphasising the importance of dialog to highlight that job expectations are meant to be discussed and revisited and made the focus of regular feedback loops. They’re not awkward topics to be hidden in a draw until review day.
Explicit expectations build trust, accountability and a culture of performance.
Demand clear expectations and set them with your team in return.
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