Articles
What Makes Employees Mad - Part II | What Makes Employees Mad - Part III
Workplace Wrath: Using Anger to Build | All Praise to the Supervisor | Listen First
Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions | The Emperor’s New Clothes - Providing Negative Feedback
Practicing Safe Stress | The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Recognition
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Recognition
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Part V – Opportunity to Do My Best
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Employee Opinions
The Pied Piper of Employee Retention Part II – Tools and Equipment
The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention Caring Supervisor

The Pied-Piper of Employee Retention
Part IV – Employer Expectation

Do your employees know what is expected of them? “They better!” is the common supervisory refrain. In the book entitled First Break All the Rules, the authors, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, write about a survey conducted by the Gallup Poll using the responses of over 100,000 employees. With the expertise of this world-famous polling organization they were able to establish a list of questions which directly related to employee retention. Each month this column will review one of the key questions concerning employee retention. This month’s question is: “Do I know what is expected of me at work?”

There are times when the employer’s expectations and the accomplishments of their employees are not the same. What do unmet expectations develop into? Anger! The supervisor feels frustrated that her employees are meeting her performance standards. On the other hand most employees desire to perform good work and not understanding what is expected is discouraging. Both the supervisor’s frustration and the employee discouragement are often expressed as anger. Many times this anger comes out in behaviors and performance that is costly to the company. Continuing this dynamic the Pied-Piper’s magical flute creates turnover as employees follow this fabled elf to other employment.

Job descriptions are a wonderful method of communication expectations, of defining the right outcome. These descriptions should be written in a manner that defines excellence in each position. This will allow the employee a target to strive for and provides opportunities for recognition when milestones are achieved. Most organizations do not have job descriptions or if there is one, it is out-of-date or generic, rendering it almost meaningless. Job descriptions should strive to create unique expectation that will challenge each employee by focusing on their particular strengths. From the book, First Break All The Rules, “When setting expectation, …define the right outcome … not the right steps.” Don’t allow average to define excellence (most of us are far more capable than just average) especially when challenged and inspired. Like the spots on the Dalmatian, we all have areas of genius. We are all Dalmatian geniuses! It is up to the supervisor to discover and utilize these strengths, allow employees to achieve according to their genius.

Some companies are addressing expectations by having a team- building meeting at the be-ginning of a project. Here the participants of the various departments and companies involved in the project have the opportunity of addressing their expectations; what is their definition of success? It is very revealing how different people have contrasting expectations and success definitions. Some organizations have professionally led facilitation discussions on what each participant wants out of the project. This open and honest exchange of dialogue decreases hidden agendas, increases the feeling of teamwork, and greatly improves the chance of success.

I should have followed my own advice for I recently hired a carpenter to do some work at my office. I made a list of what I wanted accomplished, ranked the list in order of importance, drew sketches of what I wanted, and then left for a two-week vacation in the United Kingdom. When I returned, expecting to find everything accomplished (and of course, perfectly). I was angered when it wasn’t completed and what was completed was not to my expectations – quality work, but not what I expected!

Upon examining the situation I began to realize that the carpenter accomplished what was logical and in a professional manner. I discovered it was my instructions that were faulty. Com-pounding the problem, after I had given him this project I left the country with no way to communicate with me!

Upon analyzing the problem with the carpenter, I employed one of the rules of management I find incredibly useful but many times painful and most often overlooked. When we have an expectation that is not met; stop and review the situation before you place any blame. Do the hard work first and examine your own behavior before you look at your employee’s. “How did I con-tribute to this problem?” is the key question. If this process is followed several things will be accomplished: there will be fewer conflicts, employees will have an higher respect for the supervisor, and the focus will be on problem solving rather than finger pointing - all of which will positively contribute to the bottom line.

Letting employees know what is expected of them provides them a goal line to achievement. Don’t be afraid to challenge employees – believe they can achieve the stars! Examining our own behavior first is one of the hardest skills to learn but the dividends for ourselves and those around us will be significant. These few principles will mute the effects of the marching Pied-Piper and his magical flute.