Podcast

Hi there, I'm Ben Morton, and welcome to the Leaders Kit Bag, your go to podcast for practical leadership insights. In just six minutes. In each episode, we tackle real challenges faced by leaders and managers, offering actionable tools and strategies you can take away and immediately apply. And because leadership doesn't happen in a studio, these episodes are mostly recorded and outside on the move. They're raw, unscripted, and straight to the point. So wherever you are, let's dive in and sharpen your leadership skills six minutes at a time. Have you ever been frustrated or disappointed with the performance of someone on your team, only to realize sometime later that you didn't actually make your expectations clear? Now, I'm no mind reader, but I can say with a fair degree of certainty that you're thinking one of two things right now. It's either yes, absolutely, or it's oh shit, that explains it, because it happens so often. As leaders, we hold people to an expectation that we've not clearly articulated, and the reality is that unclear expectations are one of the biggest performance killers that exists. And as leaders, we're often far more guilty of it than we realize. And that's what we're going to focus on in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag. I've got three simple tips for you to help make these unspoken and expectations explicitly clear. The first one is simply to make the invisible visible. If you have expectations from your team, say them out loud. Make them clear. Don't expect people to guess what you want. I suggest generally set your expectations around the output what you want people to deliver, not how you want them to go about doing it. To be explicitly clear about the how takes away any sense of freedom or autonomy, and that's likely to crush their motivation. Instead of assuming they'll work things out by themselves, you could say something like, I expect you to take ownership of decisions and not wait for me to sign everything off before you act. If you make a decision and you get it wrong, that's fine, we'll sort it out afterwards. But I expect you to get on and make the decisions. The second tip for making expectations clear is what I call the commitment clarification exercise. When you are delegating a task, talking about next steps with your team or or in any sort of meeting, articulate clearly what you expect and then in your own language, simply say something like to ensure we're all clear and there's no confusion or wasted effort. Ben, can I ask you just to play that back to me in terms of my expectations around next steps and the task really simple and really effective. It might feel a little strange to start with, but continue through that discomfort because it's an incredibly powerful tool to use. The third and final tip I've got for you in today's episode of the Leaders Kit Bag is to be clear, not cryptic. If you need to give some feedback and course correct somebody in your team or even the entire team, I encourage you to be empathetic and direct. Remember, you are leading real human beings with lives outside of work and emotions and other stresses and strains placed upon them and other things going on in their life except for work. So be empathetic, but also be explicitly clear with the the feedback and direction that you're giving so they can actually go away and do something with it and act upon that feedback. It will enable them to get to the standard you are expecting. Whatever you do, don't be empathetic and vague. And that is all too common. Many leaders for fear of upsetting people in their team, for fear of them reacting in a sort of negative or worryingly emotional way, for fear of disengaging them and pissing them off. Right? We are too empathetic. It's what Kim Scott calls ruinous empathy. So don't be empathetic and vague because it becomes really difficult for people to know what to do with that feedback when it's not laser focused and clear. An example being instead of saying I hoped you'd take more initiative, you could say something like moving forward, my expectation is that you flag potential problems and come to me with proposed solutions. There you have it, folks. Free tips to try and help you get your team to deliver at the standard you expect and want. I hope it's been useful. As always, look after yourself and look after those you've got the privilege and responsibility to lead. Until next time, lead on.