In the last instalment of my ongoing video series on employee engagement and motivation, I talked about the importance of setting and articulating attainable goals. Today’s tip continues on that idea. Today’s strategy is to be clear about the performance you desire.
Be clear about the performance you desire
See, while it’s absolutely critical that you set and articulate goals with your staff, it’s just as important to be very clear about what performance you desire. As leaders, we sometimes make a critical mistake with our employees, particularly those who are experienced and have been around for a while. We assume that they can read our minds. But of course, as good as your employees may be, I can pretty much guarantee that they cannot read your mind. Sure, they may make good educated guesses, but why would you leave it to chance. Why would you set them up to fail, when you can just as easily set them up to succeed, simply by being very clear about the outcomes you want.
So tell your people if you want something by a deadline, let them know if you need them to be sensitive to a specific client or a thorny issue, keep them in the loop on why something needs to be done in a certain way. When you are clear as to what result you want and expect, not surprisingly, you are much, much more likely to get exactly what you hoped for. Think about it, when you set employees up to fail, you get employee disengagement and loss of morale; when you set your employees up to succeed, you will get employee engagement and commitment. The choice is easy … right?
I have no doubt you have experienced situations where managers, inadvertently (or perhaps not!), set their employees up to fail by not being clear about the outcomes they expect. I would love to hear about these situations and your perspectives. Please comment below.