What did you expect?

One of the popular sayings I heard early in my management career was “people don’t do what you expect; they do what you inspect.”

The underlying premise of this statement is that unless you watch and keep an eye on people, they will inevitably stray off course and take advantage of you. It is built on an “us versus them” mindset. This approach will lead you down a dark road undermining trust, teamwork, and long-term success.

This approach will lead you down a dark road undermining trust, teamwork, and long-term success.

One of the seminal works on expectations and goal setting was done by Edwin Locke. One of his major findings often missed in the SMART goal conversation is the importance of what Locke referred to as agreement. His research overwhelmingly shows that…

…agreement is one of the foundational components of goal achievement.

Based on what we now know about human psychology and effective teams, the statement would be much more accurate if it said people don’t do what you expect; they do what they expect. If you want to get what you expect, then make sure that what you expect is the same thing your team expects. And no, telling them what they should expect does not work.

Here is what does work:

• Get your team together and agree on what winning looks like
• Build a visual scoreboard so it is easy for everyone to see if they are winning
• Establish a regular time and place to meet and talk about your challenges and opportunities around winning and what you need to do next
• Celebrate when expectations are met

If you want better results, clarify expectations. Make sure your expectations and their expectations are the same.