In the end, you win together as a team and you lose together as a team…and great teams seem to have a flow with everything they do. It is recognized that great teams always find a way to be successful. Does communication ever get crossed within these teams? Absolutely. The difference … that the leader encourages, even demands, a culture in which asking questions and clarifying answers is supported. These leaders recognize that there is power in identifying, confirming, and addressing expectations.
All relationships, whether personal or professional, are heavily impacted by meeting each other’s expectations. The relative ease of day-to-day conversations can cause individuals to assume their expectations are known without directly addressing them. It isn’t until those expectations are not met that it suddenly becomes clear that not everyone is on the same page, or has the same understanding and/or expectation regarding the outcome being sought. People don’t know what they don’t know until they realize they don’t know it. This is even more critical when working as part of a team. As two or more team members transmit information back and forth, other team members need to be aware of the expectations. Ascertaining, discussing and confirming a team members expectation will facilitate better management of issues, and can definitely save time in the end.
Think of it like the steps we take when making an order in the ‘drive through’ of a food establishment;
1) (Placing the order) Person #1 places an order at the drive through ordering station and Person #2 takes the order (hears it) and restates what they believe the order to be;
2) (Confirming the order) If correctly heard and confirmed, Person #2 moves to step 3 and picks up the product. However, if the order is incorrect, the original sender (Person #1) re-establishes what their expectations are. Person #2 restates with the corrected information added, what they now understand the order to be. This step is repeated as often as necessary to secure the correct order. Once the order is restated by Person #2 correctly, Person #1 moves to the next step;
3) (Pick up the order) Person #1 proceeds to the pick-up window and secures their expected product from Person #2.
The ‘drive through’ analogy is a proven process for increasing the odds of getting what you expect. The brevity of the process requires feedback in an expedient manner. In business, time is of the essence, and often the pace is such that there is a race to confirm the content and move on. The danger in this, is that team members can feel like they are not being heard.
When team members do not feel like they are being heard they begin talking to anyone that will listen. The person listening can be internal (co-worker, Human Relations, etc.) or external (spouse, friend, etc.) to the organization. More often than not, feeling they are not being heard, is identified by many employees as the main reason for initiating a formal or informal complaint. Supporting a culture of questions, and addressing team members’ expectations will, for the greatest part, prevent this type of issue. Most team members understand the limits of a supervisor’s authority; so immediately informing them (the team member) in realistic terms if their expectations are possible or need to be reimagined will help maintain the trust in the relationship.
It is only human nature to desire to belong to a successful and winning team. The success of any team leans on and is supported by leadership’s ability to encourage a culture that ensures communications flow freely among the team (up and down, laterally, etc.). The ability to ask questions is fundamental to ensuring free flowing information and ultimately ensures that everyone will remain on the same page. Mindful leadership acknowledges that moving forward rests in identifying, confirming and addressing expectations of all involved. So, let’s get out there and move forward…together.
Rusty & Riley expecting someone to pet them soon
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