Home ›› 16 Nov 2021 ›› Editorial
“Expectation management is one of the most powerful weapons in psychological warfare. In expectation management, people take their instinctual need to disparage the ideas of others and use the technique consciously, regarding their own ideas as they present them to other people.”– Tony Mowbray. In business, expectation management is the formal process of gathering, integrating and measuring the expectations of a stakeholder or client during the life cycle of a project. It is a very powerful tool that is very essential during procurement, building and phases of business projects. All expectations should always be set before the project begins and all members taking part in the project should agree with it. In a wider scope, a majority of people will claim whether a project has either failed or succeeded depending on whether it met its expectations. It is very possible for a project to fail regardless of whether it has met all its objectives depending on client’s perception. This might be as a result of failing to meet individual expectations. The expectation process will vary from one project to another depending on the nature of the programme.
Expectations are based on what has come before. Because of this, it is important you have an awareness of what is accepted practice in your industry and how you can do better.
Review how people currently solve the problem your business solves and find a better or unique way to do it. Sometimes just being more reliable or simpler than what is currently accepted, even if the outcome is the same, can be enough.
Don’t assume everyone knows what is going to happen next. Managing expectations includes stating what the customer will experience after they buy from you.
Review how you describe what people receive after making a purchase and ask yourself if you have done a good enough job explaining what is going to happen next. Explain the post-purchase steps in very basic terms.
When feedback starts coming in from your audience/members/customers, it probably points to a difference between what you said was going to be delivered, how that was interpreted, and then what was actually delivered.
This kind of feedback is incredibly valuable because it challenges your assumptions and highlights your weaknesses. Don’t ignore it, but also be careful not to assume one piece of feedback represents the majority. You can never be certain, so collect enough data before making any changes.
If you are looking for new industries to break into, look for markets where the current businesses, either due to laziness, or a lack of competition, or bureaucracy, have set standards that can easily be improved.
Richard Branson is fantastic at doing this. He finds markets where expectations are low because all the current businesses do things the same (inferior) way. Virgin enters the market with a more valuable/better/more exciting option to stir things up, and often in a short period of time is a market leader or significant player.
The sports environment is prone to these types of situations, both individually and in teams. However, we can also extrapolate what we’ve said about sport psychology to any other professional environment where achievements, goals, and reputation play such a prominent role that they take over enjoyment, personal fulfillment, or the satisfaction of contributing to a meaningful mission.
In these cases, the whole assembly line of competitiveness, the desire to excel, toxic relationships among peers, and an enormous amount of suffering, which goes beyond natural frustration, is set in motion. To avoid it, it is crucial to take care of the messages which are involved in corporate culture, and of course, maintain coherence with the methodology each employee should carry in their day-to-day. Overcoming the successes already achieved is vital for the progress of any company, but it is not good to do so at the expense of the psychological health of its “athletes”. Fostering team cohesion, stimulating a culture of cooperation over competitiveness, implementing a good strategy of reinforcement and rewards, diversifying and humanizing shared values, and leaving room for error and imperfection is key to improve productivity.
Those responsible for managing the company’s human capital must take them into account to be able to manage healthily the inevitable influx of their own and other people’s demands that put pressure on each employee.
Employee expectations are often a major headache for managers, especially those with the old-fashioned mindset that employees should be happy with whatever their job is giving them.
Unaddressed employee expectations lead to reduced morale in the workplace and lower employee engagement. If your employee expectations haven’t caused any noticeable problems in your workplace so far, no one can really blame you for adopting an “if-it’s-not-broken-don’t-fix-it” attitude. But keep in mind that what you can’t see, or choose not to see, can rear its ugly head one day, so heads up!
From the very first job interview to their first day at work, you should be direct and honest with the employee about the responsibilities and challenges their job comes with. Discuss in detail the physical and/or mental demands, the work environment and potential stressors they should be prepare for. Clearly state to the new employee exactly what your expectations are and make sure to repeat them over and over as you orient and on-board them into their new job. You also need to have these honest discussions about expectations when the employee takes on a new role in the company, where they are moving up, down or sideways in your organisational structure.
Connect them with the company culture
In order to effectively set and manage employee expectations in the workplace, you must help the employee comprehend and appreciate how they contribute to the organisation as a whole.
It’s not enough to just show them the company mission statement – you need to go ahead and elaborate why it means so much to you as a company. Have a deep conversation about the company culture, paying specific attention to focusing on the employee’s particular role in organisation and how what you expect of them on the job contributes to making the company’s mission statement a reality.
Your employees want to be challenged and be improved. They want to be given the trust, respect and responsibility for taking their own decisions. They want more control over their careers, so tying them down to a cubicle or micromanaging them will simply demoralise them, and they will likely leave. A 2016 study by the Association for Talent Development found that organisations that develop their people boast an incredible 218 per cent higher income per employee, and a 24 per cent higher profit margin, than those that don’t.
So make sure to create opportunities for your employees to develop their skills more such as supporting their further studies or regularly sending them to industry conferences.
Managers are often wary of making work more flexible for employees because they fear they will lose control of their teams but with the latest trends in human resource management, this simply isn’t the right way of thinking anymore.
Besides, people respond very well to increased autonomy: a study of almost 1,400 employees and managers in the U.K. revealed that 54 per cent of workers felt productive through flexible working, and 75 per cent felt more satisfied in their roles.
More and more people today don’t want to feel like they are failing at work because they have children to take care of, or need a more convenient working schedule.
Always make it a point to show your appreciation to your team members, especially when they have gone the extra mile for you or their colleagues, or have delivered excellent performance.
Remember it’s a virtuous circle: if your team members know that their hard work or great ideas are appreciated and rewarded, even if it’s with a simple “thank you,” then they will continue to give you their best.
As a manager it important to develop and nurture a personal connection with your employees as this can go a long way in motivating them to work harder, understanding their issues when they are underperforming and resolving conflicts between them when they naturally arise.
However, you must be careful to maintain professional boundaries at all times such that no employee ever feels that they or others have an unfair sway in your decision making.
Furthermore, it is important to keep things professional in order to avoid any abuse of power that could easily arise from getting too close to an employee, especially romantically.
The writer is MD and CEO of Community Bank
