Let’s start with a little game. Here’s an article. Here is a section of the article in visual form. I want you to read the section and try to guess what percentage of managers understand it:
“… explain they are there to help, not to judge or take over.”
I’d say 15-20% max. It’s not over 50%. No way.
Here lies a podcast on excessive micromanaging, and here lies an article about psychological safety as well.
Clarifying expectations, professionally
This, to me, is the essence of work. So many projects at a given office are being done in essentially a vacuum. Someone with a higher salary or authority said “Hey, let’s do this” — reason not always clear — and now 6 to 10 people are working on that, but there’s been no discussion about strategy, execution, what success would look like, etc.
There are stats that 7 in 10 employees spend all week on “low-value, overlapping tasks.” Very few people would come out and admit this is the case — I can tell you I’ve definitely had jobs like that, yes — but it’s a reality at many offices. The reason that people spend all week doing overlapping BS is because of what we’re discussing herein: expectations are not clarified. People just go and do, because reaction is seen as “virtuous” in many offices — as opposed to questions, context, and level-setting, which are seen by many as “not” work.
Clarifying expectations, personally
People break up or end relationships (and friendships) for different reasons, but I’d argue a lot of it goes back to clarifying expectations or not being on the same page, with the wording commonly being “We were not moving in the same direction.” I can tell you this a little bit on my ex-wife, actually; the bulk of the end of that relationship was my fault (drinking, largely), but I also had an expectation/belief, based on discussions, that we’d start trying to have a kid soon after getting married. That never really happened, and now it’s 8 years later, I’m with a different person, and still no kids. So I’d say some “expectations” were not “clarified,” and that became a problem. It’s real. It happens.
Could managers clarify expectations better?
Absolutely, and they should — but a lot of managers simply need to understand that’s part of their role. Many don’t. Many managers I’ve encountered think of themselves predominantly in terms of managing up, i.e. hitting tasks for a level or two above them, because this positions them for more incentives and perks. Very few think about communicating down a chain.
Many managers are also, legitimately, slaves to their calendars. If you’re a slave to a calendar, you’re probably not chasing many “clarifying” conversations. You’re just running to the next thing.
It would be possible for managers to sit down and contextualize projects, i.e.:
- Who is asking for this?
- What is the backstory?
- Who are the players?
- When is it due?
- What are the parts?
- What would success look like?
- Who will determine that?
- Where does it fit into everything else being worked on?
- Etc, etc.
Many managers view these discussions as either (a) hard to have or (b) counter to the idea of “getting after it” or “hitting the ground running.” I used to have this boss, ’bout three years ago, who told me once “I give you a project and you just figure it out. That’s how we’ll roll.” I was like “Uh, what? That’s not management whatsoever.” He rushed to his next meeting. I eventually got piped from that job. One of the reasons? Unclear priorities on work, apparently. Ha. Oh well.
Clarification of expectations = life, no?
Thoughts?
