Believe in your ‘Team’

if you don’t underestimate me, I won’t underestimate you Bob Dylan

How much confidence do you have in the people you work with? Your team? Your family? Do you have doubts about their capabilities? Their skills? Their passion?

Are you demonstrating your confidence in them? Do you have expectations that you regularly check with them and then turn them loose? Do you tell them that you believe in them? Are you proud of their results and effort? – tell them.

Clarity, brevity and repetition are key to helping folks meet expectations.

Be clear, with no grayness, about exactly how we will know when the expectations have been met. Not how in the the details of doing but how in the details of arriving. Give them permission to come to you if they don’t have the tools or information they need but also the permission to figure the details out.

Co-create or have them create a two paragraph(max) treatise of the expectation. Ask for a commitment for them to read the statement once a day or whenever they feel stuck. When they are off expectations the statement should tell them to get back on course. If there is a question of priority, the statement should help reconcile what to do.

As the assignments are being completed, check n with the team, about the specific expectations on a regular (at least weekly) basis and reinforce the clear brief statement.

As a leader you get to support the remarkable and capable people on your team. Start today by creating clarity, brevity and repetition in your own life.