Managing expectations is a key skill for any professional looking to improve their performance. It's essential to understand why you're being asked to do something and to communicate regularly with stakeholders until the job is done. To effectively set and manage expectations in the workplace, you must help employees understand and appreciate how they contribute to the organization as a whole. As a manager, it's important to build a personal connection with your employees, as this can go a long way in motivating them and resolving conflicts between them.
Letting others know your limits is also important: when you are available or not, what your firm limits are, where you are and where you are not flexible, your schedule, etc. Don't leave anything to chance. In life: It's just as important to overcommunicate with others outside of work as it is inside. Knowing where your friends and family stand on certain issues and their core beliefs can help you feel compassion for them and communicate better with them. The same job can be incredible or terrible, depending on how you set and manage expectations.
Managing expectations is a proactive activity: you must keep thinking about who might be affected by the change in this or that task or project. The goal is to avoid surprises for as many people as possible. The first type of expectations is when you have expectations from others, as in the example of the professor of Philosophy. Figuring out why you're being asked to do something is a very important step that many people overlook, or don't feel safe enough to ask when trying to manage expectations. To effectively establish and manage employee expectations in the workplace, you must help employees understand and appreciate how they contribute to the organization as a whole.
And when you have to manage a team, there are a lot more moving parts to think about and a lot more expectations from people to manage. The final step in managing expectations is to communicate regularly with stakeholders until you deliver the finished work. And finally, many people understand the theory of managing expectations, but do not put into practice the steps to follow. Managers are often reluctant to make work more flexible for employees because they fear losing control of their teams, but with the latest trends in human resource management, this is no longer the right way to think. For example, schedule a team outing within the employees' first two weeks of work; it could be as simple as going to a picnic together in the park. When managing expectations, when someone asks you for a job, you should give yourself space to think mentally about the future and determine what you already have to deliver and how easy it would be to include this new work. One of the most successful examples of this strategy of actively encouraging employee creativity was when Google implemented the 20 percent time program for its employees, which allowed them to dedicate one day a week to any side project of their choice.
This led to the birth of Gmail, Adsense and Google Maps, all of which are some of Google's top products today. They'll appreciate it if you told them so that they can adjust their plans accordingly and manage the expectations of their stakeholders. Managers must take more deliberate and regular steps to understand and meet the expectations of their employees in order to achieve success in their roles. And when you work with them, deliver work or products to them, or receive work or products from them, you'll have to manage expectations. To ensure success in managing expectations, it's important that managers take proactive steps such as helping employees understand how they contribute to the organization as a whole; communicating regularly with stakeholders; setting firm limits; overcommunicating with those outside of work; scheduling team outings; giving yourself space to think about future tasks; actively encouraging employee creativity; and informing others when plans change.
