Our military teammates have Dress and Appearance Standards, Standards of Conduct, and Training Standards. Our civilian teammates also follow instructions, pamphlets and manual references used as standards. From my view, these established standards read to support minimum requirements; or simply average.
However, the question you should ask yourself is, “So, are you trying to be average or achieve greater levels of accomplishment?” I believe setting expectations for yourself and receiving expectations from your supervisor are how excellence evolves in all of us.
As a supervisor, I love to spend the time with people to share “expectations.” Doing so helps to remove ambiguity. It’s important to define your expectations with examples where possible, but not at the risk of telling your subordinates exactly “how” to get something done. Certainly central to developing our subordinates to one day be you, and sitting in your seat, aids in their creativity, initiative and the advancement of their leadership skills. The challenging element is communicating the message with “intent” in order to achieve excellence!
We’ve all heard the term “commander’s intent” I think. When sharing expectations, supervisors and directors also share “intent.” As such, this is typically the approach that many of us take to communicate expectations. Some people have a tremendous ability to communicate their intentions behind the expectation and articulate the necessary details.
And there are some that use threats, often becoming counter-productive toward the end result we’re trying to attain. Others may provide just enough detail until they get the indication (see the lightbulb go off) necessary to let the member go out and conquer the task at hand. As a supervisor, you’re in the best position to develop your style and communicate with your team-mates.
Over time I’ve developed and tweaked the style that works best for me. The key, however, is to not stop adjusting your approach in an effort to best communicate with your team. And know your teammates and what approach works best for communicating with them. Cover all the bases; discuss performance factors and expected ethos on such areas as work effort, adaptability to work, problem solving, working relationships, communication, work productivity, self-sufficiency, skill in work, and work management.
Spend the upfront time with your team when it’s in a pleasant environment not when performance standards become less than satisfactory and your people become uncomfortable during the discussion.
In the end, it is our job to help our people succeed. Defining differences between standards and expectations, sharing intent and spending the time to communicate the level of excellence desired are critical in being exceptional or merely average.
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