Your Team is Being Under-Directed!!

Most leaders don't fail because they don't care. They fail because they assume clarity where there is none. Let me ask you something. Have you ever watched someone work on something really incredibly hard, but on the wrong thing? And they only realized it when it was too late. Maybe it was a project that took weeks, but nothing was solved. A goal that sounded ambitious, but had no real teeth to it, or a team member who thought they were crushing it right up until the moment you had to tell them that they weren't. Here's what makes it worse. They weren't lazy. They weren't incompetent. They just didn't know. And neither did you until the damage was done. Today, we're breaking down what leaders consistently get wrong when it comes to setting goals, communicating expectations, Gaining commitment and holding others accountable and how to fix it without becoming controlling, micromanaging, or reacting. Now, this isn't a how-to set goals, but it's a whole discussion around the importance of being very clear with the goals and expectations that you set. If you want fewer surprises, stronger execution, and a team that owns results instead of avoiding responsibility, This conversation will change how you lead.

Welcome to Shedding the Corporate Bitch, the podcast that transforms today's managers into tomorrow's powerhouse leaders. Your host, Bernadette Boas, executive coach and author, brings you into a world where the corporate grind meets personal growth and success in each and every episode. Let's do this.

Let me describe a leadership moment you probably have lived through. You set the goal, or maybe they're given to you. You had the meeting with your team and everyone nodded in agreement, and then nothing moved. You have another discussion. Maybe now it's with one or two individuals. They nod. They state that they understand, even agree to it, and yet nothing happens. Then all of a sudden deadlines slip. Quality misses the mark. You're frustrated. They're confused and frustrated. And everything just seems to be extremely chaotic because most leaders assume that behavior, lack of performance, means that they don't care or aren't accountable. I don't buy that. In my experience, most performance problems come down to 4 things: unclear goals, fuzzy expectations, lack of commitment. And accountability that shows up too late or too aggressively. Here's the first mistake I see all the time. Leaders set too many goals. They even add goals to the ones passed down. And of those goals, everything becomes a priority, which means nothing actually is. The second mistake is leaders confuse activity with outcomes. They'll say things like, we need more communication. We need to move faster. We need better collaboration. Those aren't goals. Those are wishes. I wish there was more communication. I wish there was more activity moving faster. I wish there was more collaboration. We need to be very specific when it comes to our goals. A real goal answers 3 questions. What problem are we solving? What will be different when we succeed? And why does this matter now? So let's look at an example. Maybe you set a goal around the fact that you'll stop attending meetings where your presence is really only symbolic. You really don't need to be there. You're finally looking at your calendar, wanting to open up white space, and you're saying to yourself, okay, there's things here that I can certainly delegate to others. You want to ensure that if you're going to be in a meeting or you're going to have your team members be in a meeting, there's an objective, there's value, and there's impact for you being there. So typically many managers will define that goal as, I'll stop attending meetings where my presence is symbolic. You go to convey that to anyone else about whether or not this is a goal that I have, and so you understand and support and hold me accountable to it. Maybe you even pass that goal to others on your team. What does that really mean? That is way too vague. I will stop attending meetings where my presence is symbolic. That doesn't have any weight to it. Instead, what you really want to be thinking about is defining it in such a way that anyone who you communicate that goal to, including yourself, clearly understands the expectation, you know, what's going to be measured, what actions are going to be taken, what timeline you're working with. Almost like the SMART methodology, if you're familiar with that. Now, we're not going to get into how to write a SMART goal or what I call SMARTY goals. You can reach out and make a comment and say, hey, Bernadette, explain your SMARTY goals to me. We're not going to really get into the SMART methodology. We're simply talking about how can you be clear and much earlier in your conversations when it comes to your goals or other people's goals. So no one's confused as they move forward. You take this goal of, I will stop attending meetings where my presence is symbolic, and you round it out to be very detailed. And remember, what we're looking to do is answer those 3 questions. What problem am I solving? What will be different when we succeed at achieving this goal? And why does this matter now? So let's take that goal and consider those 3 questions. It might be, to empower my team more and to ensure they have what they need, over the next 60 days, I will decline or delegate at least 30% of meetings where I am not the decision owner or primary contributor. So I can focus on prioritizing the team's workload, as that will ensure we achieve our goals. Listen to that again. And listen for what problem are you solving? What will be different when you succeed? And why does this matter now? What problem are you solving? You or your team members are attending too many meetings, meetings that are more symbolic, that you're just sitting there. You're not contributing. You're not adding any value, not any, any contribution at all. And therefore it's time on your calendar you're never going to get back, and you could be doing better, bigger, newer, more strategic things. That's the problem that you're solving. And what will be different? What will be different is one, you're empowering your team and providing them an opportunity to contribute to those meetings that you're just showing up and being symbolic in. And at the same time, it's providing you the opportunity to spend time focusing on the workload of your team members. To keep them as highly motivated, energized, and supported as possible. And then overall, an ultimate outcome of that is that they will have what they need in order for everyone to achieve their goals. You convey that to team members and/or to yourself and any of those individuals that are going to support you and hold you accountable, and they're going to have a clear idea as to the problem that you're solving, the difference it's going to make, and why it's important now to take on that goal. Let's look at another one that I get all the time from professionals who are writing their goals for themselves or their team members, and it'll be as simple and generic as increase collaboration. What does that mean? What exactly does that mean? Yes. Is that a great outcome? Absolutely. You want to increase collaboration. However, what is someone supposed to do with that? What actions are they supposed to be taking? How are they going to measure whether or not they're increasing collaboration? When do you want this increased collaboration to happen? It's extremely unclear and there's nothing that someone can start acting on as a result of that lack of clarity. So instead you might say, to ensure every team collaboration is productive, by next quarter, we will reduce standing cross-functional meetings by 30%, and we'll assign a single accountable decision owner to every shared initiative, empowering them to lead and manage the project. Now, as a result of that, you understand the problem that you're solving, you you need to improve collaboration. You'll understand the difference that it's going to make. We're going to empower team members. And why it's important is because of the fact that the collaboration currently isn't productive and/or isn't even happening. What is the problem you're solving? What is the difference it's going to make when you succeed? And why now? Very simply. If your goal can answer those 3 questions, you have a goal. That when conveyed should be clearly understood by the other parties. Now, the key thing there is if you define a goal and you answer those 3 questions and you present a goal to someone or your collective team, or even to yourself, and if your team can't explain them in plain language as to what it is that they're now setting off to do and to work on and achieve. Then you have not gained alignment. You have not gained clarity and understanding from your people. And keep in mind, silence is not buy-in. If you were to present it to them and you even ask for their clarity, or you ask them for questions around the goal, and they remain silent. Silence is not buy-in. Silence is not agreement. Silence is not alignment. You need to ask the questions in such a way, which we'll talk about. You need to ask questions in such a way that you're gaining clarity that they have a full understanding of what it is you need them to do. So what you can do instead is limit the goals to 1 to 3 priorities. Now, of course, if goals are being passed down and then you're being, you're passing them down to your team members, there may not be just 1 to 3 goals. But that's your job as a leader to take the list of goals that they are responsible for, help them with prioritization, help them to ensure they understand what those goals are, just as we just explained. And then your job is to ensure that they have what they need in order to go and execute against them. After that, you want to explicitly name, as a result of those priorities, what they should not, or you won't be focused on. So a lot of times, a lot of confusion and overwhelm will happen when an individual is given a goal or a set of goals, and then other things are already on their desk, or things come along and get thrown at them and put on their desk. And now they're sitting there completely frustrated and confused and overwhelmed around Where do I start? What's important? How do we rank the urgency of each one of these goals? Do I have to do all of them? Are they all the same priority today as they were yesterday? So ensure that you're also explicitly talking to them about what's not important now that they have this set of goals. And then you, what you want to do is you want to connect those goals, those priorities to the impact to the business, not to the effort that it's going to take to accomplish them. We want people to work smarter, not harder. You shouldn't be concerned if your team members are blood, sweat, and tears in trying to accomplish something, or that they're work— working endless hours or on the weekends to accomplish something. Actually shift your mindset and their mindset to work smarter, for them to understand clearly what those goals are, to understand the priority of those goals, to understand what it is that they should not be working on, even though it was a priority yesterday for them. And then what is the impact to the business? Help them feel valued and important in that what they are working on is going to move the needle in one way, shape, or form in the business. It could be that this, the project is going to get implemented and therefore the business users will be able to do X, Y, and Z. Or that there's going to be a new hire coming on board that will then allow the workload to be dispersed, giving everyone additional bandwidth or white space in order to work on bigger projects. Whatever that goal is, just ensure that they really understand, why am I working so hard to accomplish this goal? What am I contributing to the state of the business? Because people want to feel valued and that they're making a difference and that they're contributing, not that they're just a taskmaster. Because when goals are very clear and focused, then expectation setting really becomes easier. And we're going to talk about that in a second. Let's talk expectation, because most leaders truly believe that they are very clear with their team members when it comes to what is expected of them and what they can expect of you, the leader. But most employees, they would vehemently disagree that their leader was clear and concise and explicit about what it is that they wanted and expected. And it's most likely because of the words that they're choosing to use. Things like, you own this, run with it, keep me in the loop, look around the corner, be resourceful, take initiative. Those sound empowering, but they're actually very vague. What does it mean to look around the corner? I get that question all the time when individuals are told, look around the corner, be more strategic, run with it. What does that mean? Am I leading it? Am I co-leading it? Am I responsible for just our portion of it? What exactly does that mean? Own this. All right. If I own it, what does that give me the authority and responsibility to do in order to achieve it? All of those things sound empowering, and yet they leave your employees extremely confused and unsure of what the next step should be. It's why clarity requires specificity, and specificity requires courage. Why courage? Because many managers hesitate to commit to defining the exact goal or the exact expectation explicitly, because when others don't meet them or achieve them, all of a sudden they're put in a position to hold them accountable. And we're gonna get really deep into that in just a second. And here's a simple framework that you can use. Because every expectation, just like goals, but every expectation should clarify 4 things: the outcome, the standards, the ownership, and the timing. So the outcomes is all about what does success look like? The standards is what does good enough actually mean? Is it imperfect perfection? Is it perfection? What exactly does that mean? Ownership is all about Who decides and who contributes? And then timing. When is it due? When do we report updates? When do we close it out and consider it done? Keeping those 4 things in mind, you will ensure that you're setting and then communicating very clear expectations. And so set everyone up for success from the very beginning when it comes to your goals and expectations, because your number 1 job is to lay out exactly what you expect of them and convey it to them clearly. Now, if you're not sure how to do either setting the goals or setting your expectations, then just reach out and let's have a conversation. You can go to coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall. Now let's get into the lack of commitment that often slips up many managers/leaders when it comes to your team members really responding and acting on very explicit and clear goals and expectations. Now let's talk about the lack of confirmation, the most common leadership mistake being made and causing the majority of the overwhelm and the confusion, frustration, and chaos on a team. Leaders explain the goal, they clarify expectations, They even talk about accountability, and then they walk away assuming alignment without ever confirming it. And that's where execution quietly falls apart. Most leaders confuse communication with confirmation. They think, oh, I said it clearly. They nodded. No one had any questions. I'm good. But none of those things tell you whether or not someone actually understands, agrees, or is committed. To the goals or expectations that you laid out. Nodding is not confirmation. Silence is not confirmation. Speed is definitely not confirmation. In fact, the more senior you are, the less likely people are going to challenge you in that very moment, even when they're confused. And you certainly don't want to be asking, does that make sense? Because all you're going to get, especially as a leader, let alone a senior leader, is you're going to get them to always say yes. Even when they are confused, they are frustrated, they don't have all the details, they're not sure what to do next. What you're looking for is evidence of understanding. So here are 3 practices you can put into place to ensure that one confirms that they heard, considered, and are clear on what your goals and expectations are. The first one is you don't want repetition from them. You want their reflection of what they understood from what it is that you shared. So I might say something like, just to make sure we're aligned, how are you thinking about success here? So it's not a yes or no, and it's causing them to have to give their understanding of what it may be that you conveyed as far as what the measure of success is going to be. And at the same time, you're also gaining an understanding of how they feel about it. Is it gonna be hard? Is it gonna be easy? Is it achievable? Do they have concerns? Are there risks? So you're not asking, can you repeat what I said? You don't need it to be repeated back to you. You need to understand how they're considering and reflecting on what it is you shared. So that's the first one. No repetition, just reflection. All right. The second one would be you wanna surface any assumptions that they may have about the goals and expectations. So the second one would be make sure that you're surfacing any assumptions that they're making about the goals and expectations. Find out what assumptions are being made from their perspective that maybe you should talk about now? Because you don't want people assuming. You want people to be very clear on the direction and on the next steps that are to be taken, not making assumptions. Another powerful question would be, what assumptions are you making about these goals and expectations that we need to walk through right now? We need to talk through right now. This also gives them permission to reveal any uncertainty that they have, any questions that they have, any concerns or risks. That they need clarity around, especially going back to an earlier discussion. If you're throwing at them, oh, own this, run with the ball on this, look around the corner, and that's so vague that they don't grasp that at all. That's what you want to also gain in regards to learning about any assumptions that they're making. You don't want them to have assumptions, but this is a time to get their questions on the table so you can fill in the blanks. And then the third practice would be you want to confirm their commitment to the goals or expectations you laid out. Alignment, getting everybody on board, everybody on the same page. It isn't just about understanding, it's actual ownership. Someone won't walk away and feel like they own something if they still have assumptions, if they still have questions, if they still have confusion. So you might say something to the degree of, on a scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that you'll be successful in achieving this goal? That way you can gauge the level of ownership that they have with it. Not only that, but say they say, I'm on like a 6 or 7. Let's fill that gap. How do I get a 6 or 7 up to a 9 or a 10? And therefore, what questions do you have? What concerns do you have? What, you know, additional information do you need in order to fill that gap and make it more of an 8, 9, or a 10? And keep in mind something too. Say they say, um, I'm on a 6 or a 7. That isn't that you failed at conveying your goals and expectations. That just means that you now have more data that information's missing. Something is missing for that individual. Now you're going to have to gauge whether or not that's just because the individual's complacent. They don't like to own anything. They don't want accountability, or it's simply that there is data points missing from whatever was communicated to them that just need to get filled in. And Either one of those things you can address. The latter one is the easier one. Just fill in the gaps, ask specific questions. What is it that they don't understand? So you can get the data that they need. On the former one where they're just complacent and they don't want accountability, then you have to get into a conversation with them in regards to what concerns do they have? What are they fearing around accountability? What's coming up for them when it comes to them just not fully confirming their commitment, their ownership of that goal and expectation. And so if you've taken care of the second portion of all the data and that other piece is just still missing, that's where you focus on. And that's where you put your effort into ensuring that you provide whatever that individual person needs, even if that's critical feedback, to take on and own the goal and the expectations that you're laying out. And the greatest benefit of putting in the effort, the intention, and the attention to really being as clear as possible and very specific in your goals and expectations is that once you've confirmed understanding, you stop managing any surprises and you really start just reinforcing that clarity over and over again. Because keep in mind, you're going to share those goals and expectations initially. And yet then you, you need to get a cadence together in regards to touching base and ensuring that they are following through on what it is that you've laid out for them. And that brings us to accountability. Accountability becomes very fair, very predictable, and productive when those goals become shared. And when those expectations become mutual. So once everybody understands them and they're all on board, then the accountability then just becomes you reminding them of what it is they signed up for. It never ceases to amaze me how many of them will avoid or even abuse accountability until they really understand what it is and how it benefits them and how it is a gift to their people, do they actually embrace it and recognize that accountability basically just has a bad rap and it has really bad branding surrounding it. Accountability, often when someone hears that word, they think punishment, they think confrontation and conflict and awkward conversations. But nothing's further than from the truth. Accountability is not a consequence. Accountability is simply a system of reminding someone of what they committed to. And here's what leaders get wrong when it comes to accountability. They wait too long. They hope it fixes itself, or they come in hot and aggressive, and that just creates more hostility, more confrontation, more conflict. And it's really unfair to the team member or team members. If you have an issue with someone, you need to be addressing it immediately. If they're underperforming and/or creating a negative impact to the team, you need to be addressing it as it's happening. Those things can be corrected. However, the individual needs to know the impact that they're creating. And you not holding them accountable is not being nice or kind. It's not as if it's going to go away. It's just gonna make a hard situation even more difficult or more critical. And you cannot expect that individual to learn, develop, and grow from that situation if you're holding back what will allow them to take accountability for, learn from, and do differently going forward. Accountability is reminding them of what it is that they're responsible for. Don't be afraid of it. But if you are right now fearful of holding someone accountable, then let's reframe it. Let's look at it in a way of the goals and the expectations and the confirmation that we just discussed. Agree on the goal. We're getting to then being able to remind them. Agree on the goal. Clarify those expectations. Check the progress regularly and check it early. Don't let it get too far down the road before you check in. Adjust together. If there are things that need to be changed, if there are course corrected, then have that conversation with them and make those decisions together and then decide the new path. And then be sure to close the loop by understanding from them what they have learned from the situation, from the experience. And again, as we've talked about earlier, that's just a matter of asking them questions of what is it that you've learned from this? What will you take away? What will you do differently tomorrow? Let's be sure that this doesn't happen again. And therefore, what can you be doing differently as we move forward? That's simply reminding them, and that is not a difficult conversation to have. That's just a mutual respected dialogue between two individuals about a commitment that they made and that you're just following up on. Lastly, when you learn how to remind your team members to the commitments they have made, it's going to become so much easier and it's going to become so much less personal and it's going to become a natural practice within your leadership style is having those reminder conversations regarding what the plan was and where they are with it. That simple. Now, if you remember nothing else, remember this: goals fail without focus, expectations fail without specificity, commitment isn't gained if it's not confirmed. And accountability fails without a response. So what you could do to be shifting into more of that powerhouse leadership space is to shift from telling to aligning. It's almost, I say often, ask questions, don't make statements. So move from telling to aligning, from monitoring to partnering. So no longer are you, you know, that helicopter boss, you're aligning with them as a partner on those goals and expectations, and therefore you won't need to monitor, or that's a nice word for micromanage. And then you're moving from reacting to reinforcing. You no longer have to wait until something happens. You're building in a system of reminding that will allow you to reinforce what those goals and expectations are. And that way everyone is aligned. Everyone's on the same page. Everyone feels confident and stable and secure about where it is that the team and the business is going. And it lets go of so much stress, overwhelm, confusion, and frustration for everyone, you and your team members. And that's a win-win, wouldn't you say? As a final note, I know how easy I may make these things sound, and yet many find it difficult to implement. And so I put together a free resource based on just this conversation. That's how important it is. And that's how critical I see so many managers and leaders in the business world struggle to really become that masterful communicator, because that's all this is, communication. And so I created a free resource. It's called the Leadership Clarity Toolkit. Inside it, you're going to find a goal clarity worksheet that you can use to lay out your goals, an expectations checklist of all those elements that should be included in your expectations, a weekly accountability conversation guide that'll tell you how to remind team members and even yourself in regards to what they signed up for. And then a leader reflection worksheet. You— we gain nothing. We learn nothing if we don't spend time reflecting on what the experience was, not only for those others on our team in this instance, but also for ourselves. What have we learned? How can we develop and grow and be a more powerhouse leader? Because this isn't theory. What I laid out in this free toolkit isn't theory. It's practical leadership practices that you can be putting into your routine so you can ensure that what you have on day 1, maybe at the beginning of the year, to day 365 at the end of the year, everyone is clear, confident, and consistent in how they're performing each and every day. And as we discussed, the earlier you can create clarity, the fewer hard conversations you're gonna have to have later. To download your free Leadership Clarity Toolkit, just go to tiny.cc/claritytoolkit. Lastly, be sure to subscribe and follow the show so you don't miss a single episode, topic, or guest that we have on Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Go to ballofirecoaching.com/podcast or our YouTube channel, Shed the Corporate Bitch TV. Until next time, see ya.

Thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch. Every journey taken together is another step towards unleashing the powerhouse leader within you. Don't miss any of our weekly episodes. Subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you love to listen. And for those who thrive on visual content, catch us on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel. Wanna dive deeper with Bernadette on becoming a powerhouse leader? Visit balloffirecoaching.com. To learn more about how she helps professionals, HR executives, and team leaders elevate overall team performance. You've been listening to Shedding the Corporate Bitch with Bernadette Boas. Until next time, keep shedding, keep growing, and keep leading.