Two Consultants on Leadership: Setting Clear Expectations

Providing clarity of what desired performance looks like is a foundational leadership skill. Pinpointing, task clarification, or simply being clearer about what excellence looks like and what necessary changes in performance will move someone towards excellence continues to be an effective management strategy, often increasing performance abruptly (Choi, E., & Johnson, D. A., 2021). It’s also a fundamental skill when providing feedback because it clarifies what behaviors to repeat or do differently. While setting clear expectations is often discussed as an important skill for leaders to develop, it’s a gap that’s left unaddressed. Brian Molina and I are going to explore what it takes for leaders to effectively set clear expectations. Brian will address the skills needed to maximize a leader’s influence when setting expectations, and I will discuss some traps leaders fall into that prevent clarity in their expectations.

Brian Molina, Senior Consultant

The ability to set clear expectations is a foundational skill needed for any leader to excel in supporting their team. It is especially important in high-hazard work, where clarity can play an essential role in preventing serious injuries and incidents. Setting clear expectations isn’t complicated, but it does require deliberate intention and practice. Here are a few strategies leaders can use:

Pinpoint the critical behaviors. Pinpointing helps you take complex skills or competencies and break them down into smaller steps or behaviors. When leaders talk about expectations at a high level, saying things like, “I want you to work on your communication,” employees don’t always know what to change. They might start providing more details on the paperwork when you really wanted them to check in with project updates earlier. Pinpointing helps you avoid the grey area and room for error by getting right to the behavior. Ask yourself what great communication would look and sound like. Then speak directly to that. Employees will be more likely to hit the mark, and they will appreciate the clarity.

Clarify the task and standard. Be specific about what needs to be done, by when, and how well. “Send me that report” leaves too much room for interpretation. “Send the report by Friday at 3 p.m., including X, Y, and Z data points” sets a clear standard. This is not to suggest that leaders should outline every painstaking detail of every job requirement. That could be interpreted as micromanaging. Rather, leaders should match the level of detail they provide with the needs of the task and the individual doing the work. 

Check for understanding. Just because you’ve said it (possibly repeatedly and in detail) doesn’t guarantee that your message was clear. Ask team members to explain your expectations back to you in their own words. This small step often reveals gaps that can be addressed before they turn into missed results. 

Motivate accountability. Expectations need to be maintained through feedback and reinforcement. Acknowledge when people meet or exceed the standard, and coach when they don’t. If leaders don’t make deliberate efforts to reinforce the behaviors that they’ve asked for, old habits may creep back in, or people may think their efforts aren’t worthwhile. This can be frustrating for both parties. Consistent reinforcement is needed to prevent peaks and valleys in performance.

Build relationships. To maximize their influence in setting expectations, leaders need to maintain good working relationships. I’ve seen and heard of employees moving mountains under the leadership of someone they trusted and respected. I’ve seen the opposite in environments when people think leaders don’t care: people can become resentful and resistant to change. 

Leaders often underestimate how much influence they can have simply by being clear. Clarity empowers people—it gives them confidence, direction, and the ability to perform without second-guessing. Follow-up solidifies expectations and helps build a culture of accountability and trust.

Bryan Shelton, M.S., Senior Consultant

Clarity in setting clear expectations can often be harder than it sounds. Most of us have not been taught to talk about behavior nor can we notice and clearly describe subtle changes in performance. Leaders often find themselves falling into the following traps when communicating expectations. These traps can lead to rework, under performance, and frustration, and can negatively affect culture.

Being vague when describing performance. I have written on this topic in a previous blog, but it’s worth revisiting here. Describing performance using vague language is a common and unhelpful approach to setting expectations. Being vague often produces one of these undesired outcomes: people nod in agreement and then interpret what you said into something they are already doing, or it leaves them frustrated because they don’t know what to do next. Statements like, “Be safe out there” or “I expect the highest levels of customer service” have the illusion of clarity. The person making the statement has an idea about what they mean but leaves people guessing what that is.

Assuming understanding. Another trap leaders fall into is assuming they have been understood when describing the task or behaviors. If you have ever taken golf lessons, or other lessons on a skill that requires technique, you might have experienced this trap. While the coach might feel the statement “swing through the ball” is clear, to someone just picking up the sport, that instruction might not make any sense at all. Failing to seek understanding creates a potential failure point, and it’s why many high-reliability organizations build two- and three-way communication into procedures.

Changing expectations on a regular basis. Changing expectations on a regular basis also undermines clarity. If expectations are changed often, it leaves people guessing. In my consulting career I’ve seen leaders state, “Safety is the most important thing on site” and then support that value until there is an unscheduled shutdown. During those times, getting things back online as quickly as possible was the number one priority. These changes in expectations create a breakdown in the rules inside the organization and leave people guessing from day-to-day on what’s expected today.

Performance expectations not aligned with other systems or processes. Finally, the last trap to discuss is saying one thing but having systems and processes that support other behaviors. One client I’ve worked with had training and leadership support for supervisors providing proactive coaching using positive reinforcement, but their measurement and incentive systems rewarded fault finding and were hyper-focused on what performers were doing wrong. This misalignment left supervisors frustrated and demotivated as the expectations set them up to fail. 

Final Thoughts

Setting clear expectations is a useful but difficult leadership task. Brian mentioned several ideas that will help leaders develop this skill. I want to highlight the behavior of pinpointing as this is critical in all aspects of leadership. Leaders can actively avoid the pitfalls I discussed by implementing Brian’s ideas daily. The word active here is important, as this is not a passive process. It requires deliberate effort by leaders. However, the return on investment for doing so is worth it. 

References:

Choi, E., & Johnson, D. A. (2021). Common Antecedent Strategies within Organizational Behavior Management: The Use of Goal Setting, Task Clarification, and Job Aids. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 42(1), 75–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/01608061.2021.1967834