LEADERS SET AND SHARE CLEAR EXPECTATIONS

When I was 30 years old and seeking volunteer opportunities,I visited a Montgomery County office that matched people up with volunteer roles in the county. They interviewed me quite diligently and said they would get back to me.

Soon thereafter, they suggested I consider training to be a volunteer at the Montgomery County Crisis Center. I participated in a 32-hour training session over several months and then began volunteering one night a week from 6 PM to midnight.

I found the work to be so rewarding and meaningful that I applied for and was appointed to the Crisis Center advisory board, eventually becoming co-chair.

That role was my first step in assuming a variety of volunteer board roles over four decades in our county. These experiences have been challenging, frustrating, rewarding, and meaningful. Sometimes all at the same time.

During these years, one item has kept coming up repeatedly: the importance of clear and complete expectations being shared with all appropriate stakeholders.

These days I’m only serving on two volunteer boards, one for the Rockville Community Police Advisory Board, and the other for my synagogue, where I’m fulfilling the role of president until the end of April 2027.

Over and over again, I see people doing these things:

-Being unclear about their expectations,

-Not sharing their own expectations with others,

-Assuming people understand their expectations,

-Sharing some expectations but keeping some private,

-Offering overly ambitious or unrealistic expectations

-Sharing expectations with only some members of a team or board, but not with everyone

-Announcing or sharing expectations with a group and not allowing any feedback or discussion about those expectations

As leaders, it is critical that we always think ahead. Part of thinking ahead is developing expectations that we believe are:

-Realistic

-Helpful

-Accurate

-Forward looking.

Do you know the only way to make sure that our own leadership expectations meet these criteria?

We need to share our expectations with others. It is really helpful to share our expectations with trusted sources before we announce them publicly to teammates, peers or other board members.

Frequently, other people may point out weaknesses in our expectations or the incomplete nature of those expectations. That gives us an opportunity to revise and improve our expectations before we announce them to the full group.

I have seen leaders who are terrific at so many aspects of leadership, but they do not pay sufficient attention to these three things:

-Articulating understandable expectations

-Sharing the expectations with all appropriate stakeholders

-Accepting feedback on those expectations.

So often some people come into meetings with clarity about expectations and others are ignorant of those expectations. That can lead to frustrating, ineffective, and sometimes even contentious meetings among colleagues.

And it all reflects back on you as the leader.

Thinking about and clearly presenting expectations is a critical part of your leadership role, regardless of where you are in your career or volunteer work.

If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!

-Larry