Setting Employee Expectations as a Leader: A How-To Guide

When I reflect on the most successful leaders I’ve worked with over the years, they all possess a variety of outstanding communication skills. Yet one skill consistently stands apart – the leader’s ability to clearly set expectations for their teams.

Leaders who are crystal clear – not only about what they expect from their teams but also about what their teams can expect from them – tend to be the most effective leaders overall, consistently winning over their employees and achieving their business goals.

Of course, excelling at expectation setting takes skill and often some support. It also helps to have a great team behind you. There are proven tips and tricks to doing a better job at setting expectations as a leader, which I share in more detail in this essential guide.  

What Are Employee Expectations?

Employee expectations are a clearly defined set of tasks and goals that the leader communicates to employees through a variety of communication channels, so all employees know what they need to do in their daily work to achieve the company’s short-term and/or long-term objectives.

The best leaders share with employees what they can expect from the leader personally and what the leader plans to strive to deliver consistently. In doing so, leaders should be as specific as possible and discuss each expectation.

Additionally, leaders should share what they expect of employees, again being very specific, and ask employees to deliver as consistently as possible.

Examples of Employee and Leader Expectations

In some cases, expectations might be part of employees’ regular daily work, and in other situations, a set of expectations might be delivered for a special project or new initiative.

1. Daily expectations for managers/people leaders:

• Set clear goals for your team (yearly, monthly, weekly).
• Establish a regular communication cadence to check in with your teams (daily or weekly shift huddles, weekly all-team calls).
• Set regular one-on-one check-ins with team members on a reasonable but regular schedule; treat these meetings like gold (don’t cancel for conflicts unless absolutely necessary).
• Commit to deadlines; if the team is falling behind, make top leadership aware as soon as possible and develop a backup plan for meeting customer expectations.
• Treat team members with respect and empathy.
• Be visible to your team; take time to walk the halls, factory floor, or workplace to demonstrate you care.
• Be open to feedback; when you’re not able to act on it, share why.
• Share gratitude to team members when they’ve done a good job; commit to positive feedback on a personal level multiple times per week, if not daily.

2. Daily expectations for healthcare employees at a hospital that’s working to make patient satisfaction its cornerstone:

• Always look for opportunities to go the extra mile for your patients.
• Treat patients as if they were your own family members.
• Offer assistance to family members or relatives who may appear lost or distraught.
• Follow clear floor procedures for transporting, checking on, and bathing patients daily.
• Make a point daily to ask patients, “What more can I do to help you today?”

3. A leader’s expectations for what she will do to support her team through a very tight deadline on an upcoming project:

• In general, I have your backs on this work and personally support your efforts to succeed. Together, we will meet the client’s needs and expectations as a team.
• You can count on me to personally get you the resources you need to meet this tight deadline. If you’re running into a problem, you can personally contact me via phone or email to discuss.
• I will not increase your personal workload beyond what was defined by the project from the beginning.
• I will assign two project leads to this work who have the power to make any executive decisions for the team so the work will not be slowed down for any reason.

4. In some cases, expectations are set at a much broader scale – and quickly.

For example, we worked with a leadership team after two professional service firms closed on a merger to become a major national firm. The two legacy groups wanted to come together as a team with a clear shared purpose and unified employee culture. They were super committed to clearly communicating their expectations with the new employees so everyone understood what the new company stood for from the start.

To make that happen, the teams engaged a group of leaders and managers to help define the culture and then write a book on how to deliver an unmatched client and employee experience inside the firm. Having that book written and delivered in a matter of four short months was extraordinary and went a long way in helping the new company employees understand what was expected of them under the new company banner.

Employee Expectations Versus Team Expectations

In many cases, employee expectations can easily translate to what’s expected of employee teams; they are essentially one and the same. However, there are many cases when a specific team has a set of expectations that should be specially targeted to their group and not necessarily to all employees.

For instance, members of a special project, or subgroups of employees might have different expectations. The finance team might have different expectations than the operations team. Workers on the front line of a restaurant versus back-office employees might have different expectations.

While this might seem like common sense, leaders often overlook that their communication with employees needs to be tailored to the audience. Sometimes delivering a generic message to the entire team works great. Yet in some cases, specific teams need very specific details that are critical for them to do their work well. When the teams don’t get that communication, critical mistakes can be made.

Top leaders need to encourage managers to stay on top of communication with their teams to ensure that managers are setting clear expectations for their groups (beyond the expectations established for all employees).

Why Is Setting Clear Expectations So Important?

Setting clear expectations is about being a better communicator as a leader – and much of the evidence suggests that employees today feel their leaders are failing miserably at communicating.

According to a recent workplace report from Gallup, 60% of people are emotionally detached at work and 19% are miserable. Jon Clifton, CEO of Gallup, wrote in the report’s introduction that employee burnout can be attributed to several key factors, including unclear communication from managers.

“Get a bad (boss) and you are almost guaranteed to hate your job,” Clifton wrote. “A bad boss will ignore you, disrespect you, and never support you. Environments like that can make anyone miserable. A manager's effect on a workplace is so significant that Gallup can predict 70% of the variance in team engagement just by getting to know the boss.”

Helping managers be better communicators often comes down to helping them see how important communication is – along with expectation setting – in managing an effective team.

8 Best Practices for Leaders in Setting Employee Expectations

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make in setting expectations is trying to do so in a vacuum. In other words, they try to “lay down the law” and walk away, assuming the team got the message and will simply carry through.

Better leaders know that effective leadership is a two-way exercise that involves a lot of listening and back-and-forth communication, so leaders and the team are all clear on what’s expected and also know when questions are bubbling up and employees need clarification and support to do the work well.

The following is a set of best practices we often recommend for improving manager communication. They work to improve manager communication generally and are especially effective in setting and delivering shared expectations.

1. Start with better listening.

Many leaders don’t do enough listening. Expectations are imposed without any real input from employees on what the pain points and concerns may be.

It’s critical for leaders to truly listen, not just affirm the company’s own point of view, and first understand the challenges employees are grappling with. After all, employees can’t follow expectations blindly if their basic needs aren’t being met or, even worse, ignored.

2. Provide the context for the expectations.

To know why certain expectations are important, employees need to see the big picture, the true view of what's happening inside and outside the company, and the challenges the organization faces.

Leaders aren’t doing their employees any favors when they’re not transparent about the industry realities or present an overly sanitized view of the business climate and challenges. Instead, employees need to empathize with the roadblocks ahead to see how the expectations fit inside the bigger path toward competing in the marketplace.

For instance, during the pandemic, leaders who were honest about what was needed to beat deadlines and deliver critical supplies, or provide special support to patients in healthcare settings, were much more successful in motivating their employees.

When people feel part of something important, they’re far more likely to make sacrifices to get the job done – and far more willing to meet specific expectations

3. Spell out expectations so there is no doubt what’s required.

As was shared earlier through examples, specific daily expectations for employees’ daily work help them know exactly what’s required.

Similarly, it’s important for leaders to personally have a stake in the game. When leaders commit to personal expectations, employees naturally feel more engaged and committed to a team atmosphere where no one sits on the sidelines. Therefore, leaders should explicitly state what they commit to and how they plan to be accountable for their personal commitments.

Then, it's much easier for leaders to ask employees to be accountable for their commitments.

4. Discuss the critical success factors upfront.

Defining very specific measures of success for the project is critical to its ultimate success. This can sometimes feel like a laborious effort because project management can be cumbersome to set up, but it has huge payoffs for efficiency and accountability.

Some of the key metrics to consider including are:

• The outcome (key business objective, such as product sales, customers served, new clients reached, etc.)
• Roles and responsibilities for all team members
• Timing/deadlines
• Milestone checkpoints throughout the project
• Approval process (key stakeholders involved)
• All other key points/milestones specific to the work and needs, etc.

5. Maintain high expectations; set the bar high and keep it there.

Sometimes, team members have trouble meeting expectations for any number of reasons. It can be tempting at first to shift the requirements of the role to meet that employee’s skillset, and sometimes it may feel easier to do that as a leader. However, it’s always best to keep the bar high and instead work with the employee to meet the actual expectations, roles, and responsibilities outlined for the position. This is important because when you adjust down for any specific team member, as a leader, you’re not supporting the full team’s success.

In these cases, the best move is to sit down with the team member who’s struggling and reset the expectations so the employee is clear about what’s needed for the role. Then give the employee clear steps on what they can do to improve, as well as how you’ll help support them in upskilling to meet the need.

This kind of leadership requires more frequent communication, feedback, and candor. In the end, this kind of open communication helps employees grow in their roles, moves teams forward, and helps the organization achieve greater success in the long run.

6. Have a regularly scheduled expectations check-in.

Leaders need to understand that accountability is vital. Schedule regular check-ins to discuss the status of projects. In that meeting, cover how the team is doing for each expectation. This doesn’t mean employees will be micromanaged. It does mean they will be held to high standards and expected to report on how they are tracking against them, what they’re doing to identify challenges or needs, and how they are supporting individual employees along the way.

7. Reinforce positive behaviors.

Every day, commit to giving at least one employee feedback to reinforce positive behaviors. Providing this kind of individual feedback helps employees see in a powerful way how important meeting expectations are and how much it matters to the company and their individual success.

This kind of feedback can also be constructive and used to help redirect employees who may need coaching or new ways to approach their work to better serve the company’s goals or values.

8. Engage in “two-way communication” as a leader.

Two-way communication might seem inherent in any definition of communication, but what often happens at work isn’t true communication. Rather, it is one-way information delivered by leaders to employees, with limited interaction between the two.

Mastering two-way dialogue helps leaders build a stronger culture, one in which leaders and employees feel a greater sense of trust in each other, have more candid conversations, ask better questions, and interact in more substantive ways.

When that’s achieved, it’s much easier for leaders to communicate expectations to employees because employees have the context and a personal understanding of why the expectations truly matter.

To be most effective, it’s helpful to think about two-way communication as an engaging dialogue, never just a leader monologue. To achieve this kind of communication, leaders need to set the right tone and atmosphere to enable the conversation. Being open to feedback and posing questions help facilitate this kind of substantive interaction; feedback is also used to frame future communication.

As you think about elevating engagement, always ask yourself: “What is the most important thing these employees want to know, the best way to encourage real two-way communication and dialogue, and how would they be most comfortable sharing input?”

When employees are clear that they can share input and be involved, they become more engaged – and the stage is set for them to not only hear the expectations you set as a leader but to embrace them.

The Importance of Outcomes

We spend a fair amount of time talking with our clients and the leaders we work with about “desired outcomes,” and leaders often struggle with their responses. They typically mention communication goals, such as crafting an announcement from the CEO or drafting a leader presentation. But these are not business outcomes, and they are definitely fuzzy.

We press them on the intended outcome: What do they want to achieve with the communication? Drive employee engagement? Build employee momentum and retention? Those are actual business goals that are starting points for employee expectations and needed behaviors. “Drafting a speech” is not a business goal. The better we can define what we need to accomplish, the better our chance of achieving it. Another way to look at this: If what you want to achieve isn’t about moving the business forward, it’s important to think long and hard about whether this goal is worth doing at all.

Want to communicate your expectations and outcomes even better? Download the tool we call “Take 5 to Communicate Well.” It takes just five minutes to use and allows you to develop daily strategic communication that can help you set expectations for your teams in smarter ways.

Take 5 Minutes to Plan Your Communication

Strategic message development can really pay off in consistent communication when it matters most. It can also apply it to daily communication if you take just five minutes to think through the following as you address your next communication challenge:

1. Outcome – What do you want to accomplish at the highest level? What’s the business outcome you seek? Define it as specifically as you can.
2. Audience – Are you communicating with an individual or group? What is your relationship? What perspective might they have, and what information do they need? The more you know the better you are able to influence the audience. In the end, what do you want them to do?
3. Messages – Think about the “who, what, when, where, why, and how” of what you are communicating. Adult learners want to know the “why” first and then the “what.” Explain your intention and be direct and caring, especially when addressing difficult issues.
4. Tactics – Is the message best delivered face-to-face, one-on-one, through e-mail, or other communication? Consider the limitations and possible impact of each option.
5. Measurement – How will you evaluate how well your message is being received? Body language or verbal response? Other feedback mechanisms? One way is by analyzing employees' questions – if they are looking forward and asking how a new situation might work, your message is getting through. If they are challenging your assumptions or want to take a step back, you could do a better job communicating.

How The Grossman Group Can Help

We’re experts in leadership and communications and working with clients to address common leadership development and communication challenges. We’ve helped hundreds of leaders and teams communicate their expectations for better results.

When leaders struggle to communicate expectations, we often see the following trouble signs:

• Leaders don’t communicate in a way that engages and inspires their teams
• There’s a lack of trust in leadership
• Poor leadership scores or employee engagement scores
• The organization or leadership is seen as inauthentic and are failing to connect with employees
• There’s high turnover

Yet, with support, many leaders can make major changes to turn the metrics around and get more employees engaged and on board with the organizational direction. Once employee expectations are clear and the context for change is set, a whole new energy can take place inside an organization that’s exciting to watch.

The Bottom Line

Setting clear expectations may seem like an easy task for leaders, yet it’s more nuanced – and even more important – than many leaders realize.

Still, when leaders take the time to engage their teams and set a clear path forward, they are often amazed by how much more they can achieve with their team.

Suddenly, the team knows why the direction has been set, knows their individual role, and is much more ready to play their part in the company’s overall success.

What tips do you have for setting better expectations for employees? What’s worked best for your team?

—David Grossman

For a quick reference guide on other ways to stand out as a leader, download our eBook, Top 11 Attributes of Exceptional Leaders and Communicators. Or, share with a leader or colleague you know is looking to elevate their leadership impact.