How I Manage Expectations

In business, relationships, personal, and business meetings.

What If

I’m not really comfortable with “what if.” Does it make me a controlling person? Maybe, but it might also make me a better husband, father, businessperson, and leader.

For Your Consideration

• Ask your spouse or partner to manage your expectations when you start the day. This lets them know what’s ahead and what you can do to improve or utilize it.
• Almost anything you do, you should first understand the desired outcome before you begin. This is just as true if you decide to start a company or go on a first date. I’ll bet you didn’t see that coming.
• When you hire someone, don’t just hand them an employee manual and say read it (and expect they will). With a witness, manage your mutual expectations. Mine are:
• - You should plan to arrive 15 min earlier than your shift or our day begins. From my perspective as CEO, if you’re only 5 mins early, you’re already 10 minutes late. We will hold you accountable for anything you’re asked to do, or that is part of your job description.
• -More: You will lose your job if you steal, lie or cheat. You’ll be given one warning if you’re caught discussing company or outside politics. If you gossip about others, one warning, and finally, if you’re a woman and fail to let management know that something is wrong based on your intuition, we’ll let you go. That is if you come back with, “I could have told you . . .”

Personal

As a young father, I went through a very rough patch. I was traveling Monday through Friday across the US. I would return home sometime Friday afternoon. When I landed, I thought about getting home to my wife and four kids. My wife and I had started scheduling date nights on Fridays.

Time after time, what I had perceived was not the case. The house was messy; she wasn’t ready; the kids were hungry and often needed to be changed.

I spent the better portion of a week when I was back at the hotel thinking about her and what she had to go through and realized the problem was with me. We discussed it. The resolution: I called when I arrived at the airport to find out what I would experience as I opened the front door.

I was mentally and physically prepared to help in any way I could. Working together, we still made time for “date night.” Problem resolved.

Summary & Challenge

Here we are at the end of 2023. Think back on the number of times you thought one thing that was quite different from reality. It could have been miscommunication, misunderstanding, or preconceived ideas. What can you do to make things better and improve communication?

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Thanks for reading,

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©DR Rawson