In this solo, podcast‑style episode, Bradley Hamner warns that unclear expectations are a major, often hidden, cause of employee disengagement, turnover, and poor performance. He opens with a real‑world example from his Boardroom program where a business owner needed to place a sales rep on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). Citing Gallup’s research—over half of employees say they don’t know what’s expected of them—and supporting studies from Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, and Deloitte, Hamner establishes that vague expectations are a top driver of voluntary exits. He then explains how clear expectations should be a routine practice, not just a crisis tool. For PIPs, he outlines two essential elements: (1) a genuine opportunity for improvement (otherwise the employee should be let go) and (2) specific, measurable outcomes set for 30, 60, or 90‑day periods. He shares a success story of a rep who, after a well‑structured PIP, exceeded expectations. Moving beyond PIPs, Hamner recommends embedding expectation‑setting into everyday management through regular weekly one‑to‑one meetings, quarterly performance reviews, and the use of Dan Sullivan’s “4x4” framework (four result areas, four drivers, four hero actions). He promotes a free “Weekly One‑to‑One” template available in his Rainmaker Architect Starter Kit (blueprintos.com/assets) and encourages listeners to adopt the 4x4 tool. Hamner cautions against both low expectations (citing a humorous Denmark anecdote) and unrealistic expectations, advocating for clear, realistic expectations that align accountability and motivation. He concludes by urging managers to define concrete expectations for the next 30/60/90 days—whether a team member is on a PIP or not—to eliminate guesswork, improve performance, and reduce turnover.
Chapters
Hey everyone. So have you ever had a great employee leave unexpectedly or worse, watch them struggle without knowing how to help? Well, today we're going to dive into a silent killer of employee engagement and retention, and that is unclear expectations. So let me give the context here. We, in one of my programs, Boardroom, we had a business owner that needed to put a sales employee on a performance improvement plan. And I don't know if you've ever had that experience of doing that or actually thinking about doing it, but it was really that conversation. That led to a discussion around clear expectations and how they're not just, you know, I mean, they're crucial, but not just in a crisis situation or something where there's a performance issue, but also really as a regular practice. But let me kind of first take you back. Gallup has actually done a study, and Gallup is probably one of the foremost experts. Matter of fact, we actually had someone on the podcast recently who was a co-author of the book Strength Finders, which comes from a lot of Gallup's research, but specifically Gallup's research findings in one of their biggest studies that they've done, and one of the ones that's been quoted the most, is that, that over half of the employees said they don't know what is expected of them. As a matter of fact, that was one of the biggest reasons top reasons why employees left their jobs. Now, there's a lot of times that I don't think some of the ideas that we pick up from large corporate businesses is helpful for, for us in small business and entrepreneurs. But I think that this is one. At the end of the day, people have their job, and hopefully they see it as their career. And whether that career is in the corporate world or whether career is with us as small business owners, it is their job. And so to see things like Gallup's research findings that over half the people didn't know what it was expected of them, and that unclear expectations were a top reason why employees left their job. That's something for us to think about. There's also been some other studies quoted from Harvard Business Review, McKinsey, Deloitte, that really support this idea of clear expectations and driving team success, but also in keeping some of our best employees. And so while this connection kind of stemmed from this idea of performance plans, and that's where I'm first going to start, is that— but then we'll transition into your week in and week out. So this is not just only in the context of whenever you need to put someone on a performance improvement plan, not maybe some of the best things that you have to do, not the most enjoyable experience for you or for the team member. But here's the thing, it can be the clarity of clear expectations really should be more of a standard practice that we look at. Okay. So let's talk about this role of clear expectations in performance improvement plans. I mean, first of all, generally we don't want to make this podcast just about performance improvement plans, but in the event that you do need to do that, there really are a couple key points here. Number one is a genuine opportunity that the PIP should genuinely give the employee a chance to improve. If you put somebody on a performance improvement plan, but you're doing it because you know that you're— you've written that— wrote them off, so to speak, then you're better off to just go ahead and let them go. You'd be better for them and better for you. But if you give someone a genuine opportunity— and I will tell you, in working with one of my clients recently, they had someone— ironically, the team member actually knew not very well, but knew who they were— and they worked through the performance improvement plan, and they have come out of it and have performed. It was In fact, it was really the performance improvement plan that they were on that made them say, you know what, I actually need to straighten up, I need to improve my performance. And so they did, and they're off the performance improvement plan and doing incredibly well. So number one, genuine opportunity. Number two is really clear expectations, and specifically specific measurable outcomes for the next 30, 60, or 90 days. And that's— think that's the 3 timelines that you want to choose, either 30 days, got to give them enough time, 60 days, 2 months, or 90 days. And so that's going to be obviously very dependent upon kind of where they are. And, you know, whenever you think about onboarding someone, you're probably looking at an onboarding program of around 90 days. The 2 that I see the most often is going to be a 30-day PIP or a 90-day PIP. Okay, so hopefully that is helpful. But let's now shift outside of the idea of just performance improvement plans and let's talk about clear expectations for every role every day. And so while it's certainly important in PIPs, but it really is important all the time. And so what we don't want is some of our best people to be leaving or for people to begin to get frustrated because they're being held accountable for things that they did not know were part of the expectations that you had on them. So when can we do this? I think number one is the regular one-on-one meetings to discuss expectations. As a matter of fact, as part of this podcast, we're going to drop in our weekly asset that we use. It's called Weekly One-to-Ones. That is going to be in my, uh, starter kit, which I'll share with you where you can find that. But I dropped that asset in. So if you want to get a copy of that weekly one-to-one template totally for free, I'll show you where to get that. So I think your weekly one-to-ones is a great place to be able to do that. And then also, I think quarterly— I think quarterly doing it in your one-to-ones, and then on a quarterly basis is what specifically did you have them to do this quarter? What were you looking for? So Really, I think about quarterly evaluations 3 times a year. You may say, well, Bradley, that seems a little strange. Why, why would you do 3 times a year when there's 4 quarters in the year? Yeah, well, one of them really acts as your annual review. And so you really end up with 3 that you do quarterly, and then that 4th one ends up acting as not only a quarterly review, but really as an annual review. So indeed you are doing it 4 times a year. Specifically what is expected of them. I would encourage you to even take a peek at Dan Sullivan's 4x4. That is a concept that is Strategic Coach. They have some great podcasts out there. I think you can probably even get a copy of the, of the asset that they have on the 4x4. So it specifically is 4 boxes, and in each one of those boxes there are 4 bullet points. And so you look at your performance, results, what drives you or the team crazy, and how they can be a hero. So that tool also is a really great asset to be able to use in setting clear expectations. How do you want them to show up? Performance. What are the specific results that you're looking for? Sales numbers, pivots, um, Google reviews. Exactly. I mean, that I could end up naming about 50 different ones that fall under results. But depending on the role— marketing, client success, sales, your EA even specifically— what are the 4 major results you're looking for? What are the 4 things that are the bullet points of how you want them to show up? Performance. What are 4 things that drive you crazy? What are 4 things about how they can be a hero? So that's another fantastic tool. And where you pull that in, again, I think is in your weekly one-to-ones and in your quarterly performance evaluations. So I think that this idea of clear expectations is indeed really going to lead to higher engagement. I think it does lead to better performance, and ultimately it helps us smash fewer Rolexes. If you don't know what that means, that is all about reducing turnover. And so when you begin to get very specific yourself and very clear for you, what it is you're looking for, and then passing that on to the team. It doesn't guarantee success, but it absolutely certainly aligns expectations. We need to have this idea that there's expectation alignment. And I'll leave you with this kind of a funny story that's true. I don't know how long ago this was, but it's, uh, something that's just really stayed with me for a long time. I think it was Denmark. I think it was Denmark years ago, they won. And matter of fact, I should probably try to find this video. I'm sure it's on YouTube somewhere. They asked a guy, they said, well, congratulations, Denmark has won happiest country. And if it's not Denmark, go with me for the story, um, you'll see what I mean. They said, congratulations, Denmark has been named the happiest country in the world. What do you attribute that to? He paused and he said, low expectations. I just thought it made me laugh every time. Well, we obviously don't want to just have low expectations for our team, right? We want to have high expectations. We want to be able to challenge them and get the most out of them. Hey, we're at the time I'm recording this, it's— we're coming up on college football season. I have high expectations for my Auburn Tigers this year. And so just arbitrarily lowering expectations to say, hey, you know, I think we're going to go 6-6 just so I can be happy if we end up going, you know, 8-4 or something like that. I don't want that. That's not fun, right? So I'd rather have realistic expectations. I think with our team members, you know, we don't want to tell them, hey, I just have really low expectations of you. I mean, that, that would be so deflating for our team. But I think the key is just the clarity of the expectations, the clarity of what is it you are holding me accountable to. So my hope is, is that this podcast is giving you a little bit of an idea. We talked a little bit around performance improvement plans, the importance of being really clear. What do you specifically need them to do either in the next 30, 60, or 90 days? That way there's no guesses. For them to get off the PIP plan. In the example I gave earlier, he knew exactly what he needed to do to get off that PIP plan and to be able to kind of move forward without that weight over his shoulders. What is it for you, not just with a team member that's on a PIP, what is it about with a team member who is just your day-to-day? How can you talk about those clear expectations weekly one-to-ones, quarterly performance evaluations. Check out the 4x4 from Strategic Coach. Love that tool. I think it's a really fantastic tool. And also, if you want to get a copy of our weekly one-to-ones template, you can go to blueprintos.com/assets. There you can get access to my Rainmaker Architect Starter Kit. And in that starter kit, it's a mini course, got a lot of different assets in there, video trainings that go along with them. I dropped in this, um, asset. It is called the Weekly One-to-One. You can check that out. I've got it in Word format as well as in a Google Doc format to be able to help you. All right everyone, hope this helped. Till next time, lead well.
