Setting Expectations

Most performance problems are expectation problems

When someone is not performing, the first question is whether they know what is expected. A surprising proportion of the time they do not — the expectation was never stated, was stated once at induction, or was stated in terms too general to act on.

Managers consistently overestimate how clear they have been. What is obvious from the manager's position, with full context, is frequently not obvious from the employee's.

What must be clear

• Responsibilities — what this person owns and what they do not.
• Standards — what acceptable performance looks like, specifically. "Good customer service" is not a standard; a defined response time with a defined quality of resolution is.
• Priorities — what matters most when everything cannot be done. This is the expectation most often omitted, and its absence means the employee prioritises differently from the manager and is then criticised for it.
• Boundaries — what they decide, what they consult on, what they escalate.
• Behaviours — how work is expected to be done, not only what is achieved.
• How performance will be assessed and by whom.

Objectives

Objectives translate responsibilities into specific commitments for a period. To be useful they should be specific enough that two people would agree whether they were met, measurable in some form, achievable with the resources available, relevant to the wider goals, and time-bound.

Practical points that matter more than the framework:

• Few. Three to five meaningful objectives are manageable; fifteen means nothing is prioritised.
• Within the person's control. An objective dependent entirely on other people's decisions is a source of frustration rather than direction.
• Include how, not only what. Results achieved by damaging behaviour are not success, and objectives that measure only output invite exactly that.
• Agreed rather than imposed where possible. Someone who has shaped an objective owns it; someone handed one complies with it.
• Revisited when circumstances change. Objectives set in January and never mentioned until December measure the wrong year.

Development objectives

Alongside performance objectives, agree what the person will develop — a skill, an area of knowledge, a piece of experience. This signals that their growth matters, gives them something to work towards beyond delivery, and is one of the strongest retention factors available at no cost.

Writing it down

Expectations discussed and not recorded are remembered differently by each party. A short written record, agreed by both, prevents most later disagreement and is essential if performance ever has to be formally addressed.