The Expectations Barrier – Why it Stops Improvement
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The expectations barrier is a really big barrier to team members performing well or demonstrating behaviours to beat expectations.
When expectations are unclear, team members spend a good portion of their time and energy:
- Second guessing what is expected of them and hoping they have got it right. Different interpretations lead to inconsistent work, rework, and delays.
- Protecting themselves in case they are not delivering what is wanted by their manager. This means less time on the actual work.
- Managing their emotions – their frustrations, fears, feelings of insecurity, their uncertainty etc
Also, because there are no clear standards, different team members deliver different quality levels, at different speeds etc. These differences create tensions and frustration between team members, reduces teamwork and can lead to damaged relationships. Dealing with all these emotions further reduces the time and energy team members spend on doing the work needed to meet and beat team targets.
As you know, all these concerns, frustrations and emotions cause you to be dragged in. If you don’t work to calm team members down, smooth ruffled feathers, and diffuse the problems, they have a horrible tendency to snowball and spread.
Worst Team Member
The worst team member in any team is often the biggest source of teamwork challenges, team frustrations, ill feelings and concerns about “fairness”.
Or other team members cause problems because of perceived differences and unfairness relating to the work and behaviour of the Worst Team Member.
Rather than constantly dealing with all the symptom problems and fighting to keep the team focused and on track it is a lot easier to TACKLE THE CORE PROBLEM.
The quicker you are able to improve the worst team member or any other team member causing issues in the team, the quicker:
- You free up your time – all those 10 minute chats stop
- Less frustration, emotional angst, distractions etc are present in the team – making it a nicer place to work for everyone.
- The team becomes more focused, with more time and effort put into pushing the team towards goals – which means higher team performance.
- The more emotional space and energy you have to focus on the really challenging problems holding the team back (which again increases team performance)
- The more time and space you have for personal development, for looking at the big picture, for co-ordination, for build positive relationships with team members, colleagues and bosses
The list goes on.
You, your team and the business are a lot better off.
Watch the video to learn more about the expectations barrier and more importantly WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT.
Quickly Remove People Problems In Your Team
I invite you to take a look at our “How to Manage Difficult Employees” course which takes you through exactly how to overcome the expectations barrier (and the other 5 main barriers preventing improvement) and gives you
- The best philosophy and strategy to IMPROVE team performance quickly
- A ton of tools to quickly, fairly and effectively REMOVE people problems from your team
- To INCREASE team trust, motivation and performance
- A sustainable way to constantly and fairly increase team performance year on year
I invite you to click on the button below and join this course.
