John Hesch

Middle Managers and Leaders: Ensure Team Members Know What You Expect

As a middle manager, you can immediately improve the focus and productivity of team members by ensuring that they know what is expected of them. When high impact middle managers (that’s what I call the best middle managers) talk to their employees, they go beyond discussing obvious expectations. They ensure that each person has a good understanding of how they can best contribute to the company.

John Sinski, one of my old managers and mentors, taught me the importance of ensuring that employees knew what was expected of them. Most managers do alright providing generic expectations like what time to show up for work or job responsibilities but few go beyond the basics.

Management craft lists some of these more effective expectations.

Expectations about how this person should contribute to identifying and solving problems
Expectations about how this person will represent their function and the company
Expectations about generating new ideas and improving results
Expectations about how this employee should analyze and manage organizational resources. (For example, staff, finances, equipment).
Expectation about how this person will manage employees
Expectations about the business relationships this person should maintain and develop
Expectations about deadlines, execution, and results
Expectations about judgment and decisions
Expectations about meeting preparedness and participation
Expectations about planning and communicating work
Expectations of how this person needs to improve his or her performance.