Lately, I’ve been talking quite a bit with leaders about expectation setting. Interestingly, the conversation doesn’t always start there. Usually it starts with concerns about employee productivity and performance or disappointment that the organization’s culture seems to be at odds with the leader’s vision. Yet, after peeling back those issues, we often find the same culprit – lack of clarity and accountability around expectations.

Expectations cannot be inferred
Everyone, at every level of the organization needs to hear what is expected of him or her. There is a common myth that people higher up in the organization do not need to have expectations laid out. Somehow they are supposed to “know what is expected.”

That’s simply not true. No one, regardless of how senior in the organization can read his or her bosses’ mind. It’s true that most competent people understand their company or department’s overall targets and goals. But, there are a lot of ways to make a company successful. Consider this analogy. If ten ships set sail from New York to London but are 5-10 degrees off course from one another, they aren’t going to wind up in the same place. The same is true of your people. Even if they are able to “infer” 90-95% of your expectations, they might wind up in the same general area, but they aren’t going to land together.

In addition, good leaders adjust their expectations over time. In my very first performance review I received an “exceeds expectations” mark in every category. After congratulating me on my performance, my boss said, “Now that I know what you are capable of, my expectations have changed. If you do the same things this coming year, you’ll only meet my expectations.”

Sometimes expectations change because a leader better understands his or her people’s ability. Sometimes it is because the business context changed. Regardless of the reason, expectations change. Do you really know what you are going to be expecting of your people in three, six, nine, or twelve months? If you don’t know, how can you expect your people to know?

Compounding the problem is that there are different types of expectations. Just as a balanced scorecard helps ensure that a business has a holistic set of measures, it is important to provide a holistic set of expectations.

Four key types of expectations
There are four types of expectations that leaders should set for their people:

Results: What business results do your people need to deliver? What metrics and standards will you use to measure those results? These are the easy expectations. Most leaders do a good job of setting and tracking them.

Cultural/Behavioral: Is it ok for your people to get those results at any cost? Or, are you trying to build a specific type of culture in your organization? Do your people understand that culture? Do they know how you expect them to treat their co-workers, your customers, and others? Do they know if you want them to take risks or manage risks? Do they know if you are looking for innovation or are just trying to keep things running smoothly? (for more information on setting cultural expectations, see my post: What culture are you trying to create? Does your team know?)

Process: What actions should your people take to position your company/department for success? Should they be reaching out and building bridges with specific people or groups? Should they be focusing their attention on certain issues, customer segments, or opportunities? It’s not enough for people to know the outcome you want to achieve, if you have a vision for how to get there, they’d better understand that as well.

Individual contribution: Each of your people has unique strengths. It’s true that you might expect all of your sales people to meet revenue targets but how they do it might differ. For example, one person might be better at mobilizing others. Another person might be great at finding process improvement opportunities. Still someone else might be a superstar with the customer. Let your people know how you expect them to leverage their strengths above and beyond the day to day mechanics of doing their job. More importantly, let them what you expect them to do in order for you to help them succeed. Should they be focusing on increasing visibility ith senior leaders or improving credibility with their peers? Is it more important that they deliver one big project this year or do they need to be seen as contributing to the success of many smaller initiatives? (for more information on understanding an leveraging individual strengths, see my post, What’s so special about YOU anyway?)

If you don’t need to provide expectations, then your people don’t need you
A leader’s job is to create clarity and focus for his or her people. If your people can figure everything out for themselves, then they don’t need you as a leader.

Help your people understand what they are to accomplish, how they should behave, and, at a high level, where they should focus in order to ensure company and their own success. Your value as a leader comes from ensuring that everyone in your organization understands those four things.

Brad Kolar is the President of Kolar Associates, a leadership consulting and workforce productivity consulting firm. He can be reached at brad.kolar@kolarassociates.com.