As a leader, it is one of my responsibilities to set goals and expectations for the team.  I know individual workers have goals for themselves personally, professionally and spiritually.  However, just like a coach of a sporting team, it is my responsibility in the corporate environment to set goals for my staff (the team), often hoping to accomplish far beyond what many of them think may be possible.  There are so many expectations and disappointments when goals go unmet.  There are usually three areas that we have unmet expectations: the people around us, our current situation and the uncertain future in front of us.  We build up expectations in each of these areas on how we think things should go and are often disappointed when they do not go the way we thought.  We need to learn to manage our expectations as well as honor God in the process no matter what.  Managing expectations is a critical factor in leading successful change. If you can manage your expectations, you may have a more enjoyable experience with the people around you, the situation you are in or the future ahead of you.

“Expectations need to be managed from the beginning, and throughout the process–which requires a major effort of public information and education … Otherwise expectations are unrealistic, and [people] are inevitably disappointed. When disillusion sets in,… people can easily turn against the … agreement they had at first welcomed.”
–Kofi Annan, Secretary General, United Nations, 14 October 2004.

Whoever I am with, wherever I am, regardless of the uncertainties that lie ahead, I will live to honor God.

Many organizations around the world are finding it increasingly difficult to find good help.  As a hiring manager, I have experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to find an employee who is both dedicated and motivated.  That being said, finding an employee who demonstrates the below three characteristics on a regular basis is easier said than done.  Let’s look at the three main areas employees tend to fall into.

1. How is your employee behavior? 

In past blogs, I have already discussed “changing behavior”.  Employee behavior can be good and bad.  Does your employee make personal phone calls, surf the internet, read the paper or make idle chit chat with co-workers during working hours instead of calling your customers or performing their duties?  Are your employees performing the right behaviors on a consistent basis in order to give your organization the best chance for success?  I would say from my experience it is very rare when you have an employee who does not need to be held accountable for their utilizations over the course of an eight hour work day.  I am not advocating total control or micro-management, but I do believe it is the leader’s role to know during the course of a work day if the employee’s actions were legitimate or not legitimate toward their utilization.  Let’s face it, in most cases, not all, our human nature naturally tells us to coast or relax a bit when no one is looking.  This very statement leads me onto area number two.

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Some of these secular leaders’ principles are in clear contrast to what bible believing churches promote every Sunday.  Wouldn’t it be better to meet people where they’re at and then it wouldn’t be so critical to put people in one of two categories like these leaders promote of a problem or a Superstar?  Jesus met many people where they were at… that by these secular leader’s standards” would not be of any value at all.  In the book of John, would they put a value on the lady at the well or the lame man at the pool…I doubt it, but Jesus saw the value.

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Enjoy.

Previously, we discussed the 10% that is not going well in your organization and the 10 times longer it may take to identify, fix and change the behavior behind the 10% not going well.  Why is controlling the 10% so critical to your organizations success?  The answer lies in the fact that there is so much outside of your control that you absolutely have to control the things you can control.  If you are only controlling 90% of the 100% you can control, then you and your organization are not hitting the maximum potential of the organization.  And eventually that will be discovered and someone will be in place that will control 100% of what is controllable.  Organizational success is based on 10% of what is outside your control and 90% what you do control.  If you don’t control it someone else will.

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I hope you enjoy.