Before You Lower Your Expectations, Answer These Three Questions

Gallup has spent decades studying employee engagement, and one of the most important questions they ask employees is surprisingly simple:

“Do you know what is expected of you at work?”

Only about half of employees strongly agree they can answer that question.

Let that sink in for a moment.

Half of the people in our organizations may be operating without complete clarity around what is expected of them and what success looks like.

A CEO recently told us:

“If our leadership team got just 1% better at creating clear expectations, it would have a measurable impact on results.”

He is right.

Expectations sit at the center of performance, productivity, and profitability. When expectations are unclear, feedback becomes confusing, assumptions increase, and frustration grows.

Recently, another leader asked us a different question:

“Do I need to lower my expectations?”

The leader was frustrated.

Team members weren’t following through.  

Commitments were being missed.  

Results weren’t where they needed to be.

"Do I need to lower my expectations?" was the wrong question. We asked a better question:

"Did they agree to your expectations?”

His facial expression instantly changed, it was a "lightbulb" moment.

He had never considered that his team members may not have fully understood, agreed to, or taken ownership of the expectations he had in his mind.

What If You Don’t Have a Performance Problem?