Meeting (& Exceeding) Expectations Drives Results
The cost of confusion hits our bottom line in many ways: increased downtime clarifying details, quality errors (regardless of our industry or process), delayed deliveries, and even lost customers. All of those things kill profitability! When we think about the statement I shared from Nicki Rankin's LinkedIn article, "Managers are tasked with productivity and numbers for their department or division," it's not hard to understand why those managers get so frustrated when their team members underperform... What's often missed is just how common poor performance really is.
In August 2015, I had the opportunity to be with a small group of folks in a private session with John Maxwell at the beginning of an event that would complete the first stage of the licensing process to use some of his material. While this "small" group consisted of between three and four hundred people, it was just over 10 percent of the folks who would be participating in the entire event in the following few days and far smaller than any live venue where I had heard John speak before that. One of the things he stressed in the session, since we would be completing the process to use his material (and carry his name) in the following days, was how hard he had worked throughout his career to build and maintain a strong reputation. He also shared how he struggled with the idea of licensing people he didn't know personally to represent that reputation.
Before throwing any stones in John's direction for having too much ego or pride in the reputation he worked so hard to earn, consider what it feels like when one of your team members (or children) does something that shines a negative light on your organization (or family). It can hurt, right? Especially when that something is so contrary to the values we hold most dear...
The thing that stood out to me the most during that three-hour session, and still rings so true today, was what John asked of each individual in the room. He requested that if we used his name, we would commit to consistently exceeding the expectations of every individual or organization we worked with. He went on to share a statistic that both drove home the importance of doing that AND emphasized how infrequently anyone ever does it. John said, "Eighty percent of the population falls short of what's expected of them on a routine basis. Around 15% do the work necessary to deliver just what's expected of them, and they stop right there. Only 5% ever take the initiative to exceed the expectations placed on them." After explaining that, he challenged us to consistently be in that 5 percent. He shared several steps he had taken throughout his career to ensure he did that himself.
Today, one of the things Cindy and I do every time we meet with a potential client to discuss work we may be doing for them is go through a series of very detailed questions to be sure we know exactly what they need, how we can best support their needs, and how we can help their team members achieve results that deliver significant returns on what they invest through their time with us. We learn as much as possible about the organization as a whole and each individual we'll interact with through the process. By doing this, we can tailor everything we do to their industry and the issues they're dealing with at that time. Quite frankly, it would be irresponsible on our part if we didn't do that!
When we accept the responsibility for leading others, even if that's only tied to a title or position within the organization we work for, we'll be required to go beyond what the majority will ever do-which connects back to the numbers John shared... As leaders, we also need to understand that many of the members of our teams may never take the steps necessary to remove the confusion that will keep them from meeting (or exceeding) what's expected of them. That will nearly always be up to us!
They Won't Hit What They Don't See
Let's face it, if we expect the members of our teams to take more responsibility than we do, we are not leading them! If we want our teams to achieve the kind of results possible by always meeting (and frequently exceeding) what's expected of them, we have to make sure each team member is completely clear on those expectations; we've got to remove confusion!
If every single person who's a part of our team was in the 5 percent of folks who consistently exceed expectations that I referenced before, we'd either have the best team in history, or we'd have a whole bunch of folks who were on their way to leading their own teams. While either would be outstanding, the likelihood of that truly applying to every one of them is relatively low-and that's okay. That's where our work begins, however.
In conversation with a business-owner friend a few years ago, he shared an example with me from an interaction with one of his key team members just days before. They were discussing progress on one of the construction projects his team member was overseeing, and he asked what their goal was for the day. While that team member wasn't necessarily trying to be a wise guy, his response of "going home at 4:30 this afternoon" sure did come across that way! If that key team member had that as his primary goal for what the team accomplished that day, what are the odds of anyone on the team he was responsible for having a more specific goal?
Many folks hear a story like that and blow it off as something that would never happen with their team, but these scenarios are far more common than most of us would like to admit! The fellow who gave that response was (and still is to this day) one of the top performers in that company-a company that's been reasonably successful for more than half a century. He just provided an incredibly transparent answer that shines a bright light on a widespread issue. And that issue isn't isolated just to organizations that struggle to make ends meet.
In that particular case, the company's owner realized he needed to be more clear in setting daily and weekly progress goals on each project his crews were working to complete. When his crew leaders, like the fellow who was previously focused on going home at the end of the day, had a distinct objective for where they should be daily, their teams had a much better shot of achieving those goals. I've never known anyone to be able to hit a target consistently that they didn't know existed. To that end, very few folks consistently miss targets when they clearly understand what they should aim for.
I'll stress again that this example comes from a company with a solid history and strong reputation in the community, not some fly-by-night crap show just trying to skate by. If even some of the best organizations in any given industry have confusion within their teams as to what they're working to achieve, I believe it stands to reason that not having clear expectations kills more profitability than we realize. The more precisely we can define exactly what is expected, the better our chances of separating ourselves from our competition. Being in the 5 percent who consistently exceeds expectations doesn't require much extra effort, but it does require some extra. That extra starts with clear expectations in each performance area. Let's map that out before diving into the steps we can take to help our teams deliver.
Pulling Ahead of the Pack...
I know very few people who jump out of bed each morning full of vim and vigor in pursuit of mediocrity. Most everyone I've ever known to accept average as the highest level of success and achievement they believe possible has seemed to loathe getting out of bed and dread each step they take throughout the workday. Since the first time I heard average described as being "as close to the bottom as it is to the top" or as "the best of the worst or the worst of the best," I've wanted to be as far away from average as possible! Building a team that consistently exceeds expectations, that 5 percent I've referenced a few times so far, is a sure-fire way to pull ahead of the pack and leave average in the dust, but it will require us to make sure each team member can see the targets we need them to hit VERY clearly!
An article from ZenBusiness.com by Tony Jeary called "Exceeding Expectations: The Key to Value" shared it this way:
It is rare for anyone to exceed expectations unless they do it on purpose. To exceed expectations on purpose means that you have an understanding of expected performance, and you realize that expected performance is in no way extraordinary. It becomes tougher when you realize that exceeding expectations requires more effort to surpass what might be described as "acceptable performance." Acceptable performance is in fact mediocrity, and mediocrity is usually the norm. The problem is that it's hard to sell mediocrity!
Our role as leaders, if we genuinely want to capture the profitability that's killed by confusion and missed expectations, is to provide each member of our teams with a clear understanding of precisely what's expected in every area of their performance AND clear expectations as to why mediocrity isn't enough!
I often talk about the HR manager I worked for throughout my manufacturing career. He was technically my boss's boss, but let's just say he was actively engaged in making sure I knew what he expected of me... Whether it was during my time in behavior-based safety or when I moved into a human resources role full time, he was ALWAYS clear about his expectation that if I attended any event-training, conference, workshop, whatever-I should apply something immediately afterward that had a direct impact on improving productivity and profitability. Most success in the safety and HR world is measured by issues that are, in theory, prevented. If a facility had fifteen incidents one year but only twelve the following year under similar business conditions, the consensus was that the safety team was successful-and maybe even exceeded expectations. For the human resources department, spending less year over year on recruiting or reducing unemployment costs would, in most organizations, fit that same mold. Achieving those things was undoubtedly part of what he expected. Still, he also expected me to be able to implement initiatives that tied directly to improving overall productivity. This was rarely an easy expectation to meet, let alone exceed, but he was always intentional about explaining why this mattered-and that was seldom tied to appeasing Wall Street!
When I mentioned counting steps long before the Fitbit became popular, it wasn't simply for the sake of looking at ways to make someone's work easier. This was just one example of how we used meticulous data to implement change that would reduce the time an individual needed to perform a task and increase productivity-thereby meeting the expectation that the HR manager had of me! In his article, Tony Jeary stated, "The expectations you exceed today become the seed for new opportunities in the future. This may seem to be an obvious fact, but many people fail to connect today's actions with future opportunities." While meeting my boss's boss's expectations often seemed almost impossible, his setting those expectations and holding me accountable to them have indeed become the seed for more new opportunities than I can count!
If we're going to do this same thing for the teams we lead, we will have to be just as intentional about setting clear expectations that define the measurable results necessary to stay well above average and pull ahead of the pack. Let's look at some concrete steps we can each take to do that!
