7 Ways to Manage Expectations Effectively

HR Bartender is published on a WordPress site. It’s reported that WordPress runs about 25% of all global websites. So understanding WordPress is an important investment in managing HR Bartender. The WordPress community in South Florida puts on a conference each year called WordCamp Miami. If you’re interested in learning more about WordPress, you should see if your city is hosting a local WordCamp event.

This year, one of the speakers focused his session on how to manage expectations. Steve Zehngut is the founder of Zeek.com, a consultancy dedicated to building software solutions. While I was listening to his session, I realized that the information he was sharing about managing expectations didn’t only apply to software project management. It applies any time we are trying to manage expectations in the workplace.

Managing expectations isn’t easy. In the business world, we need to communicate with others all day every day about the things we’re prepared to do (and not do.) We have to communicate with others the consequences of behavior (or non-behavior.) Steve shared his list for managing expectations and I wanted to share it with you. I loved that it was titled “A whole bunch of words that end with the letter Y”:

  1. Honesty means that we reveal the truth when it comes to setting expectations. It might be tempting to concoct some little white lie to push back a deadline, but honesty is better. Accountability demands honesty.
  2. Transparency is related to honesty but it’s defined as revealing information so others can see the truth. I really liked the distinction between honesty and transparency – and how they can work together to build credibility and integrity.
  3. Integrity happens when we become a trusted advisor and/or colleague. This gives us the ability to manage expectations more effectively because the person we’re communicating with believes our message.
  4. Accountability is defined as taking responsibility for our actions. And not just ours, but the organizations we work for. We simply can’t say, “I didn’t do it.” When the reality is – maybe the company did do it.
  5. Consistency translates into being a person of your word. Every. Single. Time.
  6. Vulnerability is necessary because none of us is perfect. We have to be prepared to admit mistakes, making apologies, and work toward finding solutions.

NUMBER 7. The last one Steve mentioned was Respect. And he set it up by saying it’s the one word on the list that doesn’t end in “Y.” But that’s not true. I viewed respect as a twofer. Respectability is the quality of being socially acceptable. If others do not find us respectable, it’s kind hard to do items 1-6 above. It’s also important to deliver any expectations respectfully. We can’t wait until we’re completely exasperated with the situation to convey expectations.

Regardless of our position, managing expectations is an important part of what we do every single day. Incorporating a whole bunch of things that end with the letter Y could help avoid a whole bunch of conversations that end with the question “Why?”

Image taken by Sharlyn Lauby during the 2015 Great Place to Work Conference

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