High Performance Leadership

When someone is disappointing you they may have misunderstood your intentions. (Or, maybe you have...) The challenge to misunderstanding is that we seldom understand that we have understood. The illusion of truth is as strong as steel. Disappointment, originating in unmet expectations, requires clarity to be cured. Clarify your intentions. Clarify your expectations. Clarify, and confirm. What do you think? -- doug smith

  Do your team members know your expectations? Have you told them, directly, what you want? High performance leaders communicate their expectations frequently and precisely. There should never be any doubt. -- doug smith

How do the people on your team feel about your expectations? How well are you communicating your standards, your insistence, your urgency? Your people are listening carefully to you. Maybe more carefully than you imagine. Sometimes they understand you and sometimes (gasp!) they misunderstand you. Be intentional about what you say. What we say creates expectations -  about what we want, about what we expect, about how we operate and behave. Your team will do its best to meet your expectations, so choose your expectations carefully. -- doug smith doug smith training

How clear are your expectations? Does everyone on your team know what you expect from them? Beyond the performance evaluations, beyond the goal setting sessions, do you have regular conversations with them about what you expect? High performance leaders make their expectations clear in many areas, including: goals values mission vision (where do you see your team sometime in the future?) interpersonal relationships (how do you expect team members to get along?) communication standards rules, regulations, agreements You can likely think of several other areas where people simply do not know what your expectations are unless you tell them. So tell them: early and often.  Give people half a chance to meet your expectations by letting them know what they are. -- Doug Smith

Do your team members know exactly what you expect? It seems like such a simple thing, and yet so many supervisors miss this opportunity. They expect people to know their expectations. We can do better. We can be clear about our expectations. Communicate to your people your standards, your criteria, your expectations. Let them know what you want. Who knows? They'll probably deliver. -- Doug Smith Are you looking to develop the supervisors in your organization? Bring our two-day workshop, Supervising for Success in to your location. Contact me for details: doug@dougsmithtraining.com

What if the opposite of your solution is a better solution? How innovative are you? Are you willing to take creative risks? Taking the time to flip expectations can be invigorating. Looking at the opposite of your goal can be enlightening. Life is filled with possibilities, and sometimes we have to sneak up on them and let them surprise us. Surprise! -- Douglas Brent Smith Front Range Leadership:   Training Supervisors for Success