Communicate Expectations The Right Way

If you hold clear high expectations for your people they may automatically rise meet those expectations. However, I might add that when you urge your teams on to greater achievement, how you urge them is as important as what exactly you urge. Great expectations can easily go awry if they're not communicated the right way. Here are a few tips for doing it right.

Declare very high expectations. Sometimes seemingly impossible goals are the most likely to be met. Ordinary expectations can be self-defeating because people realize such goals won't be hard to accomplish, so they don't try very hard. Thus you should set goals that will at first provoke the response that they can never be attained. Be clear that you are expecting something truly out of the ordinary. As you declare and continually reinforce what you're hoping for, those from whom you're desiring it will start working toward it with such a focused effort that the ball should quickly start rolling toward the goal.

Communicate your expectations clearly. Make sure that there is no ambiguity about what is expected. Describe what you're aiming for fully and in a positive way. There should be no confusion in anyone's mind about what you're demanding. If your goals and priorities are clearly articulated those who will execute them will be able to focus all their effort on attaining them.

Make sure those expectations fit their recipients. A leader should make sure that he declares the right expectations to the right people. He should consider his audience's backgrounds, abilities and circumstances before setting expectations. There is no point in setting a goal that's far removed from what someone has any experience and expertise in. Only establish expectations that have a real, strong chance of succeeding--even if they do sound impossible at first.

Communicate your expectations at every level. A leader must reinforce his expectations consistently, in both personal and public settings, formally and informally, inside and outside the organization. Every moment you spend with a person should confirm your trust that he will grow to the level you expect. At the same time, you should also make sure your high expectations for that person are reinforced by being conveyed to others inside and outside his immediate milieu.

Reconfirm your expectations constantly. Do not be discouraged when someone doesn't immediately grow to fit your expectations. Rather, continue to encourage by being clear that those expectations persist.

I am the smartest guy in the room effect!

In Greek mythology Narcissus was a favorite of Apollo and considered one of the most handsome young men alive. His beauty has been compared to Adonis, whom Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love herself, loved.The story goes that Narcissus, having come to a pool of water to quench his thirst, saw his own reflection in the smooth surface of the pool and fell in love with it. Since he could not obtain the object of his love, he died of sorrow by the same pool. The nymphs grieved the loss of Narcissus, but when they prepared his funeral pyre, they could not find his body—only the flower that bears his name. Supposedly, Narcissus still gazes upon his own reflection in the waters of the river Styx, in the underworld.

Yesterday, CIOZone caught my eye with an article they titled, Sometimes IT Leaders Are Too Smart for Their Own Good, where they suggest that, "Even the smartest person in the room can benefit from listening to others, provided those people have been chosen wisely." The author, RD Lewis calls it "Social Cognition-driven Hierarchy Level Establishment and Positioning (SCHLEP)."

He suggests, "The subject isn't emotional intelligence. People who lack that can't effectively work with other people—a related but different affliction." He suggests that these people "...don't listen because they don't see the point."Lewis asserts, "It's the intellectual version of a well-known tendency among male, muscularly-advanced high-school students: looking at their social world as a pecking order, within which they seek their level—preferably, someplace near the top—but through intellectual rather than physical pushing and shoving."

I think most people who have been in the workforce for any length of time have had to contend with a narcissistic personality at one time or another. Sometimes they are called "the smart person in the room," Lewis calls them "SCHLEPers," I just call them "Narcissists."I once worked with a guy who thought that he was the only one with any brains. He wouldn't listen to anyone and his fingerprint needed to be indelibly stamped on every initiative. In fairness, he was very smart, but his organization couldn't grow beyond what he could personally control. I didn't stay there very long.

I don't think it matters whether you are the project manager, the CIO, or the CEO—surrounding yourself with people who know things that you don't know is smart, very smart. Having the self-control and trust to actually listen to them is brilliance—and critical to accomplishing things greater than oneself.Lewis suggests that, once you "[s]tart down this path you'll discover something wonderful: Many people who are far less intelligent than you know something important you'd be wise to learn from.

It has to be this way, because no matter how smart you are, and how little sleep you think you need, you only have 168 hours in a week to add to your fund of knowledge. Line up nine decently smart employees who each spend 20 hours a week learning more about their professions, and every week one of them will know something you don't.""Most people know something you'd benefit from hearing," he continues, "You just have to help them figure out what it is."Regardless of how you manage project-based work or your particular project management software, always being the smart guy in the room just isn't a good idea. It alienates both stakeholders and project teams—and ultimately inhibits project success.What do you do when you need to work with a narcissistic personality? Or, if you tend to be what Lewis calls a SHLEPer, what do you do to foster dialog and keep from always being the smart guy in the room?

Program Complexity Assessment Tool

As I think through explaining complexity of a program to a client, I came up with an interesting way to assess the complexity of a program. The program complexity tool shown above helps determine how a new program stands on multiple dimensions of complexity.

One of the elegant features of the complexity assessment tool is that it produces a complexity profile which helps to visually depict the overall program complexity. The level of program complexity may have a significant bearing on the level of funding, resource allocation, and approved timing and schedule targets of the delivery effort. Additionally, it contributes to sharpening the focus of attention on the elements of highest complexity in order to reduce risk and ensure that they are appropriately managed.

The value of the above tool is multifold. Senior Managers/Directors can use the tool to help balance a portfolio of programs with an appropriate mix of low-to high complexity programs. It also helps them determine the level of skill and experience needed for the program manager and other key roles on the team to successfully define and execute a program.

Program Managers can utilize the tool to identify key risk areas for a program - high complexity usually means higher risk. In the example above, any program element shown as a complexity level of 3 or 4 should be evaluated in terms of risk to the program. The complexity information contained in the tool can also be utilized by program managers to develop and justify the amount of schedule and budget contingency needed for the program in order to increase the probability of success.

EXECUTE.... OR BE EXECUTED!!!

"Strategy gets you on the playing field, but execution pays the bills"

- Gordon E. Eubanks, former President and CEO, Symantec Corporation

As I sip through coffee glazing over the Forbes magazing, I am surprised to read that:

"82% of Fortune 500 CEOs surveyed indicated that they feel their organization did an effective job of strategic planning. Only 14% of the same CEOs indicated that their organization did an effective job of implementing the strategy".

Corporate Strategies are intellectually simple; their execution is not. The question is, can you execute? That's what differentiates you. While most organizations have the strategy, they lack an actual strategy-execution process. Some organizations cannot articulate their strategy in a clear, simple, consistent voice - a requirement for enabling discussion and encouraging followership.

Sadly, many employees don't understand the corporate aims of their organization, let alone see themselves as an integral part of the solution. Harvard Business School findings suggest that 95% of employees do not understand their organization's strategy. Do your employees understand? or even if you are running a program or initiative, does your team understand... how this helps the organizations' strategy?

A group of U.S senators were visiting NASA at a time when funding was being threatened. One senator asked a man cleaning the floor, "So, what are you doing here?" The man answered, "I'm here putting a man on the moon"

Linking strategies to execution remains a key component of achieving business value. Last year I presented a method/technique for creating this link... and was well received, but the more projects I execute and more experience I gain, I understand the importance of this link more deeply.

In one of my recent engagements, I saw top leadership doing a great job of executing and more precisely they were able to close this gap between strategy and execution. Basically boils down to effective leadership.

So when folks say project/program managers are lateral thinking....and have an adminitrative focus... and not innovative focus, I tend to disagree. More and more execution of strategy happens with effective leadership, hence the project/program managers who consistently succeed show a relentless capability to innovate.