How to effectively communicate expectations

Best practices for setting & communicating expectations: 

This may seem so common sense, but, the first step is really to decide what your expectations are. There’s a high probability here that expectations haven’t been well defined by the organization and/or for your team or department.  Where do you need expectations? 

• The work: quality, quantity, what defines success, what are the standards, boundaries on responsibilities, what is/isn’t the role of the job, what authority the person has over their work (what can they make decisions on themselves and what do they need to run by you or others), how much you expect to be kept in the loop with their tasks
• Communication: how do we communicate, about what, when, how often, using what medium, what is expected after-hours (do you expect them to check email, respond, answer the phone after hours?) 
• Time: are people expected to respond immediately, if you give a time expectation, does it mean by close of business that day or first thing in the morning, what hours are they expected to work and where
• Culture (spoken & unspoken rules): one workplace I worked in – the people of the org all had different ideas of what constituted having to take time off for doctor appointments – this is a good example of a culture expectation. The clearer you can be about these expectations, the better. The more ambiguous your policies are, the more gossip spreads about unfairness and inconsistency. What organizational norms exist? I highly suggest to set an expectation to minimize gossip & politics. 
• Customer service: what are your expectations for customer service?  Both internal and external customer service. 
• The person’s development: do you expect them to seek their own development opportunities? 
• General expectations: behavior expectations, demeanor expectations, work apparel expectations, professional expectations, etc. 

If you have organizational-wide expectations, senior leadership should be reviewing them from time to time to evaluate if they are still relevant. It makes sense that expectations might change over time and new ones brought on. 

Provide context & intent. Giving others the context and intention for the expectations will not only make them clearer and easier to follow, but will help them understand the bigger picture and you’ll get their buy-in and commitment more easily. If you’re delegating a task and setting expectations that something is done by a certain time, providing the additional context – for example, if you need it by X time because you have a meeting with the client at Y time – sharing this helps the person understand the importance of why you are setting the time expectation that you are setting. 

When determining expectations, be as realistic as possible. If you are assigning tasks or a project, you might need to ask questions in order to get a sense of someone’s current workload/priorities before you set your expectations. Or, set your expectations then be prepared to assist them in re-prioritizing if applicable. 

A good rule of thumb is that when you feel frustrated, first figure out why (My employee didn’t communicate the update with me) then ask yourself “What role did I play in this?  What were my expectations and did I communicate those?” 

Be as SPECIFIC as possible. For task expectations: 

• what are you expecting them to do, 
• how does it impact other people, departments, the company, 
• what outcome do you expect, 
• when are you expecting it by, 
• what authority do they have for it (how empowered are they?), 
• how often do you want updates, 
• when and how will you make yourself available to them for questions or ideas, 
• ask yourself – if someone were setting this expectation with me, would I be clear on what to do and what was expected of me? What other questions would I have? 

Provide your expectation in writing after doing it verbally that way the person has something to refer back to. 

Find out what people expect of you. It’s a two-way street: down, up, and across. 

Get agreement & commitment.