Page 182 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

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Expectations

Be Specific When Setting Expectations

Among the most important actions you can take to increase pro-
ductivity and efficiency in your organization is to create check-
points and have people work to deadlines. If you want to make
sure that something doesn’t get done, just tell your employee,
“Work on it when you have time.” I’ve got a long list of tasks wait-
ing to be done when I have time. The larger and more complex
the task, the more checkpoints you need. At each checkpoint,
the employee should know how much progress is expected of
him or her to keep on track. If you’ve ever run a marathon, you
know how important it is to see your time at each mile marker;
employees also need to know if they are on pace. In our quality
improvement example, if the project is to be completed in three
months, checkpoints should be set at least every two weeks.
Additional checkpoints should be added at the beginning and
end, which are typically the most critical times.
Whenever possible, provide employees with physical exam-
ples of the desired outcome. Having a picture of what it is
supposed to look like (whatever it may be) greatly facilitates
reaching the goal. If I know what it looks like I can use it as a
model; for example, if you expect a report completed in a cer-
tain way, provide a sample report. Think about the last time you
bought something that needed to be assembled. If you’re like
me, you threw away the directions and just looked at the picture
on the outside of the box. Knowing what something is supposed
to look like dramatically increases the likelihood of it turning
out that way.
The following story is a clear, although somewhat extreme,
example. One of my clients, a very hands-on CEO, recently hired
a senior-level executive. During the interview process the CEO
was very clear in describing the culture of the organization,